nia 


, 


THE  LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


* 


EDWIN    BOOTH 


[See  page  3S 


Portraits  in  Plaster 


FROM 

THE  COLLECTION 

OF 

I.  IURENCE     II  UTTON 


NEW    YORK 
HARPED     &     BROTHERS     PUBLISHERS 

1894 


Copyright,  L894,  by  Harper  &  Brothers. 

All  right*  reserved. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

EDWIN  BOOTH Frontispiece 

DANTE 7 

TORQUATO   TASSO 11 

SnAKSPERE — Stratford  Bint 15 

SHAKSPERE — Kesselstadt  Mask 17 

DAVID   GAHIilCK 21 

EDMUND    KEAN 25 

JOHN   m'cullougb 29 

DION    BOUCICAULT 31 

LAWRENCE   BARRETT 35 

HENRY   EDWARDS 39 

EDWIN   BOOTH 43 

MRS.  SIDDON8 47 

LOl   ISE   OF   PRUSSIA 51 

MARIA   P.  MALIBHAN 55 

FREDERICK   SCHILLER 59 

1.1   DWIG    VON    BEETHOVEN — From  Life 63 

LUDWIG    VI  IN    BEETHOVEN — From  Deal]. 65 

FELIX   MENDELSSOHN 69 

a.   It.  MIKABEAU 73 

JEAN   PAUL   MARAT 77 

MAXIMILIAN   ROBESPIERRE 79 

SIR   ISAAC   NEWTON 83 

BEN.  CAUNT 87 

WILLIAM    MAKEPEACE  THACKERAY 89 

THOMAS   CHALMERS 93 

SAMUEL   TAYLOR   COLERIDGE 97 


20J?45?5 


vi  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

WILLIAM   WORDSWORTH 101 

JOHN  KEATS 107 

SAMUEL  JOHNSON Ill 

BENJAMIN   ROBERT   HAYDON 115 

JEREMY   BENTHAM 119 

DANTE   GABRIEL   R088ETTI 123 

COUNT   CAVOUR 127 

PIUS   IX 129 

GIACOMO   LEOPARDI 133 

JOHN   BOYLE   O'REILLY 135 

SIR  THOMAS   LAWRENCE 139 

J.  M.  W.  TURNER 143 

HIRAM   POWERS 147 

LOUIS    AGASSIZ From  Life 151 

LOUIS    AGASSIZ — From  De.tb. 153 

CHARLES  SUMNER 155 

ANTONIO   CANOVA 159 

RICHARD  BRLNSLEY   SHERIDAN 161 

THOMAS   MOORE 165 

EDMUND   BURKE 169 

JOHN  PIIILPOT   CURRAN 173 

LORD   PALMERSTON 175 

BENJAMIN   DISRAELI 179 

JONATHAN   SWIFT 183 

SIR  WALTER   SCOTT 189 

ROBERT   BURNS 193 

KING   ROBERT   THE   BRUCE 195 

NAPOLEON   1 199 

NAPOLEON   III 203 

OLIVER   OliOMWELL 207 

HENRY   IV.  OP   FRANCE 215 

CHARLES  XII.  OF   SWEDEN 219 

FREDERICK  THE   GREAT 223 

U.  S.  GRANT 227 

WILLIAM  T.  SHERMAN 231 

GEORGE   WASHINGTON 235 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN" 
THOM  \s  PAINE  .  . 
AARON  BURR  .  . 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
DANIEL  WEBSTER  . 
HENRY  CLAY  .  .  . 
.1011 N  C.  CALHOUN  . 
LORD  BROUGHAM  . 
FLORIDA  NEGRO  BOY 


VII 
PAGB 

239 
243 
2-17 
251 
255 
257 
259 
2<>:t 
266 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  story  of  the  beginning  of  my  collection 
of  masks  is  curious  and  perhaps  interesting. 
The  half-dozen  casts  upon  which  it  is  based 
were  found,  early  in  the  Sixties,  in  a  dust-bin 
in  one  of  the  old-fashioned  streets  which  run 
towards  the  East  River,  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Tompkins  Square,  New  York.  Their  owner 
had  lately  died ;  his  unsympathetic  and  nnap- 
preciative  heirs  had  thrown  away  what  they 
considered  "  the  horrible  things ;"  a  small  boy 
had  found  them,  and  offered  them  for  sale  to  a 
dealer  in  phrenological  casts,  who  realized  their 
worth,  although,  in  many  cases,  he  did  not 
know  whose  heads  they  represented ;  and  so, 
by  chance,  they  came  into  my  possession,  and 
inspired  the  search  for  more. 

The  history  of  these  masks  which  formed  the 
nucleus  of  the  collection,  or  the  history  of  the 
original  collector  himself,  I  have  never  been 
able  to  discover.     They  are,  however,  the  casts 


x  IXTR0DI-CT10S 

most  frequently  described  in  the  printed  lect- 
ures of  George  Combe,  who  came  to  America 
in  the  winter  of  1S3S-39,  and  the  inference  is 
that  they  were  left  here  by  him  in  the  hands 
of  one  of  his  disciples. 

The  earliest  masks  in  the  collection  to-day  are 
replicas  of  those  of  Dante,  made,  perhaps,  in  the 
first  part  of  the  fourteenth  century,  and  of  Tasso, 
certainly  made  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth.  The 
latest  mask  is  that  of  Edwin  Booth,  who  died 
only  a  few  months  ago.  They  range  from  Sir 
Isaac  Newton,  the  wisest  of  men,  to  Sambo,  the 
lowest  type  of  the  American  negro  ;  from  Oliver 
Cromwell  to  Henry  Clay  ;  from  Bonaparte  to 
Grant ;  from  Keats  to  Leopardi ;  from  Pius  IX. 
to  Thomas  Paine ;  from  Ben  Caunt,  the  prize- 
fighter, to  Thomas  Chalmers,  the  light  of  the 
Scottish  pulpit. 

So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  discover,  mine 
is  the  most  nearly  complete  and  the  largest  col- 
lection of  its  kind  in  the  world.  I  have,  in- 
deed, found  nothing  anywhere  to  compare  with 
it.  Usually,  the  Phrenological  Museums  con- 
tain casts  of  idiots,  criminals,  and  monstrosities, 
and  these  are  seemingly  gathered  together  to 
illustrate  what  man's  cranial  structure  ought 
not  to  be.    There  are  but  three  or  four  casts  of 


INTRODUCTION  si 

the  faces  of  distinguished  persons  in  the  British 
Museum,  and  about  as  many  in  the  National 
Portrait  Gallery  in  London;  and  all  of  these  I 
am  able  to  present  here,  with  the  exception  of 
that  of  James  II.,  who  belongs,  perhaps,  to  the 
criminal  class.  In  the  Hohenzollern  Museum 
are  many  casts,  but  these  generally  are  those 
of  civic  or  national  celebrities  —  Berlin  alder- 
men or  German  warriors,  in  whom  the  world 
at  large  has  but  little  interest.  The  casts  of 
Frederick  the  Great,  Queen  Louise,  Schiller,  and 
one  or  two  more  in  that  institution,  however.  I 
was  permitted  to  have  reproduced.  The  others 
I  have  gathered  after  many  years  of  patient 
and  pleasant  research  in  the  studios,  the  curios- 
ity-shops, and  the  plaster-shops  of  most  of  the 
capitals  of  Europe  and  America.  The  story  of 
this  research,  with  an  account  of  the  means 
taken  to  identify  the  masks  when  they  were 
discovered,  could  itself  make  a  book  of  this 
size.  I  am  sure  that  mine  is  the  actual  death- 
mask  of  Aaron  Burr,  for  instance,  because  I 
have  the  personal  guarantee  of  the  man  who 
made  the  mould  in  1830;  I  am  positive  of  the 
identity  of  another  cast,  because  I  saw  it  made 
myself;  and  concerning  still  another,  I  have  no 
question,  because  I  know  the  man  who  stole  it! 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

In  the  matter  of   the   great   majority  of   the 
masks,  however,  the  difficulties  were  very  great. 
Hai'dly  one^w  centum  of  the  hundreds  of  biog- 
raphers whose   works    I    have   consulted    ever 
refer  to  the  taking  of  a  mask  in  life,  or  after 
death,  and  there  is  absolutely  no  literature  which 
is  devoted  to  the  subject.     The  cast  of  Sheri- 
dan's hand  is  often  alluded  to,  the  mask  of  his 
dead  face  is  nowhere  mentioned  ;  and  yet  there 
appears  to  be  no  doubt  that  both  were  taken. 
The  cast  of  his  head  has  been  compared  care- 
fully with  all  the  existing  portraits ;  it  has  been 
examined  by  experts  in  portraiture;  phrenolo- 
gists have  described  the  character  of  the  man 
most  accurately,  from  its  bumps  and  its  physiog- 
nomy ;  it  was  certainly  made  from  nature ;  it 
is  too  like  Sheridan  to  have  been  made  from 
the  nature  of  any  other  man ;  and  yet  there  is 
no  record  of   its  having  been  made.     Xo  sur- 
viving member  of  the  family  of  Coleridge  had 
ever  heard  of  the  existence  of  his  death-mask 
until  my  copy  was  discovered,  but  they  all  ac- 
cept it  as  genuine ;  and  I  recognized  Mr.  Ernest 
Hartley  Coleridge  once,  in  the  corridor  of   a 
London  club,  by  his  wonderful  resemblance   in 
features,  and  in  the  shape  of  his  head,  to  the 
mask  of  his  grandfather.     The  mask  of  Dean 


INTBODl  i  TIOA  xiii 

Swift  which  I  possess  is  exactly  like  the  long- 
lost  cast  as  it  is  engraved  in  Dr.  Wilde's  book. 
The  mask  of  Charles  XII.  shows  distinctly  the 
marks  of  the  bullet  in  the  temple;  and  I  have 
succeeded  in  tracing  the  other  casts  in  many 
and  very  different  ways. 

I  may  mention  here  that  some  of  these  masks, 
as  you  now  see  them,  were  broken  in  the  Cus- 
tom-house in  New  York,  and  that  the  mask  of 
Elihu  Burritt  was  demolished  entirely  ami  with- 
out hope  of  restoration.  Upon  these,  notwith- 
standing their  condition,  and  upon  all  the  im- 
ported masks,  I  paid  a  duty  of  fifty-five  per 
centum,  upon  a  valuation  assessed  usually  at 
twenty-five^/'  <■<  ntwm  above  what  I  swore  was 
their  value  in  Europe ;  the  Custom-house  charges 
of  various  kinds  being,  in  many  instances,  larger 
than  the  original  cost  of  the  casts  themselves. 
So  far  as  I  can  understand,  I  was  taxed  in  this 
matter  in  order  to  protect  the  ghosts  of  the 
plasterers  of  America,  who  could  not  have  made 
these  casts  even  if  they  had  so  wished  ! 

The  value  of  a  plaster  cast  as  a  portrait  of  the 
dead  or  living  face  cannot  for  a  moment  be  ques- 
tioned.  It  must,  of  necessity,  be  absolutely  true 
to  nature.  It  cannot  flatter ;  it  cannot  caricature. 
It  shows  the  subject  as  he  was,  not  only  as  others 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

saw  him,  in  the  actual  flesh,  but  as  he  saw  him- 
self. And  in  the  case  of  the  death-mask  par- 
ticularly, it  shows  the  subject  often  as  he  per- 
mitted no  one  but  himself  to  see  himself.  He 
does  not  pose ;  lie  does  not  "  try  to  look  pleas- 
ant." In  his  mask  he  is  seen,  as  it  were,  with 
his  mask  off  ! 

Lavater,  in  his  Physiognomy,  says  that  "the 
dead,  and  the  impressions  of  the  dead,  taken  in 
plaster,  are  not  less  worthy  of  observation  [than 
the  living  faces].  The  settled  features  are  much 
more  prominent  than  in  the  living  and  in  the 
sleeping.  What  life  makes  fugitive,  death  ar- 
rests. What  was  undefinable  is  defined.  All  is 
reduced  to  its  proper  level;  each  trait  is  in  its 
true  proportion,  unless  excruciating  disease  or 
accident  have  preceded  death."  And  Mr.  W. 
W.  Story,  in  writing  of  the  life-mask  of  Wash- 
ington, says  of  life-masks  generally :  "  Indeed  a 
mask  from  the  living  face,  though  it  repeats  ex- 
actly the  true  forms  of  the  original,  lacks  the 
spirit  and  expression  of  the  real  person.  But 
this  is  not  always  the  case.  The  more  mobile 
and  variable  the  face,  the  more  the  mask  loses; 
the  more  set  and  determined  the  character  ami 
expression,  the  more  perfectly  the  work  repro- 
duces it." 


INTltODl  i  TIOA  xv 

The  procedure  of  taking  ;i  mould  of  the  li\  ing 
face  is  nol  pleasant  to  tlio  subject.  In  order  to 
prevent  the  adhesion  of  the  plaster,  a  strong 
lather  of  soap  and  water,  or  more  frequently  a 
small  quantity  of  oil,  is  applied  to  the  hair  and 
to  the  beard.  This  will  explain  the  Hat  and  un- 
natural appearance  of  the  familiar  mustache  and 
imperial  in  the  cast  of  Napoleon  III.  In  some 
instances,  as  in  that  of  Keats,  a  napkin  is  placed 
over  the  hair.  The  face  is  then  moistened  with 
sweet-oil;  quills  are  inserted  into  the  nostrils  in 
order  that  the  victim  may  breathe  during  the 
operation,  or  else  openings  are  left  in  the  plas- 
ter for  that  purpose.  A  description  of  the  tak 
ing  of  the  mould  of  the  face  of  a  Mr.  A— 
(condensed  from  a  copy  of  the  Phrenological 
Journal,  published  in  Edinburgh  in  January, 
IM.'ii.  will  give  the  uninitiated  some  idea  of  the 
process:  "The  person  was  made  to  recline  on 
his  back  at  an  angle  of  about  thirty-live  degrees, 
and  upon  a  seat  ingeniously  adapted  to  the  pur- 
pose. The  hair  and  the  face  being  anointed 
with  a  little  pure  scented  oil,  the  plaster  was 
laid  carefully  upon  the  nose,  mouth,  eyes,  and 
forehead,  in  such  a  way  as  to  avoid  disturbing 
the  features  ;  and  this  beiug  set,  the  back  of  the 
head  was   pressed    into   a    Hat    dish   containing 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

plaster,  where  it  continued  to  recline,  as  on  a 
pillow.  The  plaster  was  then  applied  to  the 
parts  of  the  head  still  uncovered,  and  soon  after- 
wards the  mould  was  hard  enough  to  be  re- 
moved in  three  pieces,  one  of  which,  covering 
the  occiput,  was  bounded  anteriorly  by  a  ver- 
tical section  immediately  behind  the  ears,  and 
the  other  two,  which  covered  the  rest  of  the 
head,  were  divided  from  each  other  by  pulling 
up  a  strong  silken  thread  previously  so  disposed 
upon  the  face  on  one  side  of  the  nose."  The  ac- 
count closes  with  the  statement  that  "Mr.  A 

declared  that  he  had  been  as  comfortable  as  pos- 
sible all  the  time  "  ! 

Since  these  papers  originally  appeared  in 
Harper's  Magazine  in  the  autumn  of  1892,  they 
have  been  revised,  enlarged,  and  virtually  re- 
written. Eighteen  new  masks  are  here  pre- 
sented, and  I  have  added  many  pages  to  the  de- 
scriptive text. 

The  subject-matter  of  the  volume  may  not  be 
considered  very  cheerful  reading,  but  I  feel  that 
to  those  to  whom  the  work  appeals  at  all  it  will 
appeal  strongly  as  an  unique  portrait  gallery  of 
men  and  women  of  all  countries  and  of  many 
ages,  distinguished  in  many  walks  of  life.  I 
trust  that  it  will  lend  itself  particularly  to  extra- 


n  mom  <  1 1>'\ 


illustration.  And  to  all  those  who  make  human 
portraiture  a  study,  or  a  bobby,  it  is  cordially  in- 
scribed. I    u  ,;l  V   |      1|  |    |  ,,,V 


N  i  «   \  i  ikk.  January  1.  1894. 


PORTRAITS    IN    PLASTER 


"The  sleeping  and  the  dead  are  but  as  pictures." 
— Macbeth,  act  ii  .  scene  2. 

If  the  creator  of  Duncan  was  right  in  saving 
that  there  is  no  art  to  find  the  mind's  construc- 
tion in  the  face,  then  must  the  author  of  the 
.\ rovum  Orgcmum  have  been  wrong  when  lie  de- 
clared that  "physiognomy  ....  discovereth  the 
disposition  of  the  mind  by  the  lineaments  of  the 
body;"  and  these,  curiously  enough,  are  parallel 
passages  never  quoted  by  the  believers  in  the 
theorv  that  Bacon  was  the  writer  of  Shakspere's 
plays. 

It  is  not  intended  here  to  enter  into  a  discus- 
sion of  the  merits  or  demerits  of  physiognomy. 
This  is  an  Exhibition  of  Portraits,  not  a  Phren- 
ological Lecture.  I  shall  try  to  show  how  these 
men  and  women  looked,  in  life  and  in  death,  not 
why  they  happened  to  look  as  they  did;  and  1 

shall  dwell  generally  upon  their  brains,  occasion 
i 


2  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

ally  upon  their  bones,  but  only  incidentally  upon 
their  bumps. 

The  ancient  Romans  are  said  to  have  made,  in 
wax,  casts  of  the  faces  of  their  illustrious  dead. 
These  masks  are  believed  to  have  been  colored 
to  represent  the  originals  as  they  appeared  in 
life,  to  have  been  cherished  religiously  by  their 
descendants  through  many  generations,  and,  on 
the  occasion  of  a  public  and  formal  funeral,  it  is 
thought  that  they  were  sometimes  worn  by  pro- 
fessional mourners,  as  a  sort  of  posthumous  trib- 
ute from  the  dead  already  to  the  memory  of  the 
latest  man  who  had  died.  And  recent  explorers 
have  satisfied  themselves  that  in  the  early  burials 
of  man}'  nations  it  was  the  custom  to  cover  the 
heads  and  bodies  of  the  dead  with  sheets  of  gold 
so  pliable  that  they  took  the  impress  of  the  form  ; 
and  not  infrequently,  when  in  the  course  of  cen- 
turies the  embalmed  flesh  had  shrivelled  or  fallen 
away,  the  gold  retained  the  exact  cast  of  the 
features.  Schliemann  found  a  number  of  bodies 
"  covered  witli  large  masks  of  gold-plate  in  ije- 
pousse-\v ork,"  several  of  which  have  been  repro- 
duced by  means  of  engraving,  in  his  Mycena  : 
and  he  asserted  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  what- 
ever that  each  one  of  these  represents  the  likeness 
of  the  deceased  person  whose  face  it  covered. 


i  V(  n:\  r  .1/  LS.fi  s  3 

When  Eamlet  said  that  Alexander  died.  Alex- 
ander was  buried,  Alexander  returneth  to  dust, 
he  overlooked  the  fact  that  Alexander's  dust. 
instead  of  being  converted  into  loam  to  stop  a 
beer -barrel,  was  preserved  from  corruption  by 
the  process  of  embalming,  and  from  external  in- 
jury by  being  cased  in  the  most  precious  of  met 
als.  Pettigrew,  in  his  History  of  Egyptian  Mum- 
mies, said  of  the  death-mask  of  Alexander  that 
"it  was  a  sort  of  chase-work,  and  of  such  a  nat 
ure  that  it  could  he  applied  so  closely  to  the  skin 
as  to  preserve  not  only  the  form  of  the  body,  hut 
also  to  give  the  expression  of  the  features  to  the 
countenance."  lie  did  not  quote  his  authority 
for  this  statement,  but  it  is  unquestionably  de- 
rived from  the  account  of  the  death  and  burial 
of  Alexander  written  by  Diodorus  Siculus,  who 
said:  "And first  a  coffin  of  beaten  gold  was  pro- 
vided, so  wrought  by  the  hammer  as  to  answer 
to  the  proportions  of  the  body;  it  was  half  filled 
with  aromatic  spices,  which  served  as  well  to  de- 
light the  sense  as  to  prevent  the  body  from  pu- 
trefaction." Then  follows  a  description  of  the 
funeral  chariot,  and  of  the  long  line  of  march 
from  Babylon  to  Alexandria,  where  Augustus 
Ca?sar  saw  the  tomb  three  hundred  years  later; 
but  there  is  no  reference  to  a  mask  of  Alexan- 


4  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

tier's  face  in  gold.  It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted 
that  such  a  mask  does  not  exist  now,  that  it 
might  be  compared  with  the  plaster  masks  of 
Cromwell,  Washington,  Frederick  the  Great, 
Bonaparte,  Grant,  and  Sherman,  and  other  con- 
querors of  later  days  here  presented  to  the  pub- 
lic scrutiny. 

Among  the  gold  mummy-masks  exhibited  in 
the  Museum  of  the  Louvre  is  one,  as  Mr.  John 
C.  Van  Dyke  points  out,  which  bears  a  curious 
and  striking  resemblance  not  only  to  Washing- 
ton, but  to  the  familiar  portraits  of  Greuze,  the 
painter.  It  is  No.  536  of  the  Egyptian  Collec- 
tion, and  bears  a  card  with  the  following  inscrip- 
tion :  "  Masque  de  Momie  trouve  dans  le  chambre 
d'Apis  consacre  par  le  Prince  Kha-Em-Onas." 

In  the  collection  of  antiques  presented  to  the 
museum  at  Naples  by  Prince  Corignano  is  a  wax 
mask  with  glass  ej'es.  It  was  found  with  four 
decapitated  bodies  in  a  tomb  at  Cumae,  and  it  is 
evidently  a  portrait  of  the  original,  who  is  said 
to  have  been  a  Christian  martyr.  And  Mr.  W. 
M.  Flynders  Petrie  exhibited  in  London,  in  the 
autumn  of  1S92,  an  exceedingly  interesting  col- 
lection of  antiquities  brought  from  Tel-el-Amar- 
na,  the  Arab  name  for  the  ancient  city  of  Khue- 
naten,  situated  about  one  hundred  and  eighty 


DANTE  5 

miles  south  of  Cairo.  That  city  was  built  about 
fourteen  hundred  years  before  Christ,  by  Khuena- 
len,  son  of  Amenhotep  III.,  who  made  it  the  cen- 
tre of  his  proposed  great  revolution  in  religion, 
art,  and  ethics.  The  collection  comprised,  among 
other  things,  a  cast  from  the  head  of  Khuena- 
ten  himself,  taken  after  death,  according  to  Mr. 
Petrie,  for  the  use  of  the  sculptor  who  was  pre- 
paring the  sarcophagus  for  his  tomb.  These 
are  among  the  earliest  examples  of  death-masks 
which  have  come  down  to  us. 

At  least  three  copies  of  the  Dante  mask,  all 
believed  to  be  authentic,  are  known  to  be  in  ex- 
istence. First,  that  which  is  called  the  Torrigiani 
cast,  which  can  be  traced  back  to  1750  ;  second, 
the  so-called  Seymour  Kirkup  mask,  given  to 
him  by  the  sculptor  Bartolini,  who  is  said  to 
have  found  it  in  Ravenna ;  and  third,  a  mask  be- 
longing, according  to  Kirkup,  to  "the  late  sculp- 
tor Professor  Pucci."  "  The  slight  differences 
between  these,"  adds  Kirkup,  "  are  such  as  might 
occur  in  casts  made  from  the  original  mask." 
Concerning  the  original  mask  itself,  says  Mr. 
Charles  Eliot  Norton,  there  is  no  trustworthy  his- 
tory to  be  obtained.  On  the  very  threshold  of 
his  inquiry  into  the  matter  he  was  met  with  the 
doubt  whether  the  art  of  taking  casts  was  prac- 


G  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

tised  at  the  time  of  Dante's  death  at  all,  Vasari, 
in  his  life  of  Andrea  del  Yerocchio,  who  flour- 
ished in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  hav- 
ing declared  that  the  art  first  came  into  use  in 
Verocchio's  day.  It  is  certain  that  there  is  no 
record  of  the  Dante  mask  for  three  hundred 
years  after  Dante  died  ;  but  it  is  equally  certain 
that  it  resembles  nearly  all  the  portraits  of 
Dante  down  to  the  time  of  Raphael.  Mr.  Norton 
believes,  from  external  evidence,  that  it  is,  at  all 
events,  a  death-mask  of  some  one  ;  and  of  this,  it 
seems  to  me.  there  can  be  no  question. 

There  are  two  masks  of  Dante  now  on  public 
exhibition  in  Florence.  One  is  in  the  house 
built  upon  the  site  of  the  mansion  in  which 
Dante  was  born ;  the  other  is  in  a  small  cabinet 
adjoining  the  Hall  of  the  Hermaphrodite  in  the 
Uffizi  Gallery.  The  former  is  a  cast  of  the  face 
only,  ami  it  bears  eveiy  evidence  of  recent  con- 
struction. The  latter  is  a  cast  in  plaster  of  the 
head  and  shoulders,  and  is  one  of  the  masks  of 
which  Mr.  Norton  speaks.  It  has.  unfortunately, 
been  painted,  the  face  a  flesh  color,  the  cap  ami 
"■own  red,  the  waistcoat  and  the  tabs  over  the  ears 
green ;  but  it  is  undoubtedly  a  very  early  cast 
from  the  mould  made  from  the  actual  head.  It 
bears  the  following  inscription,  "Ettigie  di  Dante 


WL 


\ 


V 


V 


TASSO  9 

Alighieri,  Maschera  Formata  sul  di  lui  Cadavere 
in  Ravenna  l'Anno  1321,"  and  to  it  is  attached  a 
card  saying  that  it  was  bequeathed  to  the  .Muse- 
um by  the  Marquis  Torrigiani  in  18(55.  It  is 
here  reproduced. 

••  Why  keep  you  your  eyes  closed,  Signor  Tor- 
quato  ?"  said  a  watcher  at  the  death-bed  of  Tasso 
— one  of  those  silly  persons  who  ask  silly  ques- 
tions, even  under  the  most  serious  circumstances 
—"Why  keep  you  your  eyes  closed?"  "That  they 
may  grow  accustomed  to  remain  closed,"  was 
the  feeble  reply.  They  have  been  closed  to  all 
mortal  vision  for  three  hundred  years  now,  but 
in  the  pale,  cold  plaster  of  the  accompanying 
mask  his  face  is  still  seen  as  it  was  seen  by  the 
vast  and  sorrowing  multitudes  who  lined  the 
streets  of  Home  to  look  upon  his  triumphant  fu- 
neral procession.  His  body  was  clad  in  an  an- 
tique toga,  kindled  tapers  lighted  his  way,  and 
his  pallid  brow  was  at  last  encircled  by  the 
wreath  of  laurel  he  had  waited  for  so  long. 
And  thus  at  the  end  of  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury do  we,  in  the  New  World,  look  upon  the 
cast  of  the  actual  face  of  the  great  poet  of  the 
Old  World  who  died  at  the  end  of  the  century 
he  adorned.  The  original  mask  is  preserved, 
with  other  personal  relics  of  Tasso,  in  the  room 


10  PORTRAITS  IA    PLAST£R 

of  the  convent  of  San  Onofrio,  in  which  he  died. 
But  the  great  powder  explosion  which  shook  all 
Rome  a  few  years  ago  so  shattered  this  part  of 
the  convent  that  the  room  and  the  mask  are  no 
longer  shown  to  the  public. 

The  personal  appearance  of  Tasso  has  been 
carefully  and  minutely  described  by  his  friend 
and  biographer  Manso.  His  broad  forehead  was 
high  and  inclined  to  baldness;  his  thin  hair  was 
of  a  lighter  color  than  that  of  his  countrymen 
generally :  his  eyes  were  large,  dark  blue,  and 
set  wide  apart;  his  eyebrows  were  black  and 
arched ;  his  nose  was  aquiline ;  his  mouth  was 
wide:  his  lips  were  thin;  and  his  beard  was 
thick  and  of  a  reddish-brown  tinge. 

Tasso  went  from  Naples  to  Borne  to  receive 
from  the  hands  of  the  Pope  the  crown  of  bay 
which  had  been  worn  by  Petrarch  and  other 
laureates  of  Italy  ;  and  he  died  upon  the  day  set 
apart  for  his  coronation. 

The  head  of  Shakspere  here  presented,  from 
tin'  monumental  bust  in  the  chancel  of  the  church 
at  Stratford, like  everything  else  relating  to  Shak- 
spere, in  life  or  in  death,  is  shrouded  in  mystery. 
It  is  supposed  to  be  the  work  of  one  Gerard 
Johnson,  and  to  have  been  "  cut  from  a  death- 
mask  "  shortly  after  Shakspere's  funeral.     The 


TORQUATO    1  ISSO 


SHAKSPERE  13 

earliest  allusion  to  it  is  to  be  found  in  a  poem  of 
Leonard  I  liu'ires,  written  seven  years  later.  It 
was  certainly  in  existence  during  the  lifetime  of 
Anne  Hathaway  Shakspere,  and  of  other  mem- 
bers of  his  family,  who  would,  perhaps,  have  ob 
jeeted  or  protested  if  the  likeness  had  not  been 
considered  a  good  one.  Sir  Francis  Chant  ny 
believed  it  to  have  been  worked  from  a  cast  of 
the  living  or  the  dead  face.  "There  are  in  the 
original  in  the  church,"  he  wrote,  "  marks  of  indi- 
viduality which  are  not  to  be  observed  in  the 
usual  casts  from  it ;  for  instance,  the  markings 
about  the  eyes,  the  wrinkles  on  the  forehead,  and 
the  undercutting  from  the  moustachios."  W < nt Is- 
worth,  among  others,  accepted  its  authenticity, 
and  Mr.  llalliwell-Phillipps  did  not  hesitate  to 
put  himself  on  record,  more  than  once,  as  having 
every  faith  in  its  superiority,  in  the  matter  of 
actual  resemblance,  to  any  of  the  alleged  por- 
traits. He  ranked  it,  in  point  of  authority,  lie- 
fore  the  Droeshout  print,  endorsed  by  Ben  Jon 
son  as  perfect;  and  he  called  attention  to  the 
general  resemblance  to  be  traced  between  them. 
It  certainly  differs  in  many  respects  from  the 
famous  plaster  cast  found  in  a  curiosity-shop  in 
Germany  some  years  ago,  and  known  as  the 
Kesselstadt  mask,  a  photograph  of  which  is  here 


14  rOHTli.UTS  IN  PLASTER 

reproduced.  This  mask  is  believed,  by  those 
who  believe  in  it  at  all,  to  have  been  made  from 
Shakspere's  dead  face,  to  have  been  carried  to 
Germany  by  a  German  envoy  to  England  in 
the  reign  of  James  I.,  to  have  been  cherished  as 
an  authentic  and  valuable  relic  for  many  gen- 
erations, to  have  been  sold  for  rubbish  at  the 
death  of  the  last  of  the  race,  and  to  have  been 
recovered  in  a  most  fortuitous  way.  It  bears 
upon  its  back  the  date  of  Shakspere's  death, 
1616,  it  has  been  the  subject  of  more  discussion 
than  any  piece  of  plaster  of  its  size  in  the  world, 
and  even  those  who  believe  that  it  is  not  Shakspere 
have  never  asserted  that  it  is  Uacon  ! 

According  to  Mr.  G.  Huntley  Gordon,  this  cast 
from  the  Stratford  bust  was  taken  about  1S45, 
stealthily  and  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  by  a 
young  Stratford  plasterer,  who  was  frightened 
by  imaginary  noises  before  he  succeeded  in  get- 
ting a  mould  of  the  entire  head.  After  the  pro- 
test raised  against  Malone  for  whitewashing  the 
bust  in  17'Jo,  the  authorities,  naturally,  had  put 
an  embargo  upon  any  handling  of  the  monument, 
and  the  operation  was  fraught  with  much  risk  to 
the  aspiring  youth  who  undertook  it.  A  cast  is 
known  to  have  been  taken  for  Malone,  however, 
and  since  then  other  casts  have  been  made  by 


SHAK.SPKUE — SlratforJ  Busl 


SHAKSI'EUE — KeiseUti.li  M.i-: 


SHAKSl'ERE—QAHRICK  18 

other  artists,  notably  one  by  George   Bullock, 
who  made  the  (loath-mask  of  Scott. 

Next  to  the  Stratford  bust,  the  sculptured  por- 
trait of  Shakspere  most  familiar  to  the  world  is 
that  which  stands  in  Poets'  Corner,  Westminster 
A.bbey.  The  artisl  went  to  some  strange  source 
for  the  likeness,  and  although  it  was  for  gentle 
Shakspere  cut,  by  no  means  does  it  outdo  the  life. 
'•  I  saw  old  Samuel  Johnson,"  said  Cumberland, 
describing  Garrick's  funeral — "I  saw  old  Samuel 
Johnson  standing-  at  the  foot  of  Shakspere's 
monument,  and  bathed  in  tears."  Burke  on  that 
occasion  remarked  that  the  statue  of  Shakspere 
looked  towards  Garrick's  grave;  and  on  this 
stray  hint,  as  Mr.  Brander  Matthews  believes, 
Sheridan  hung-  his  famous  couplet  in  the  Mon- 
ody : 

"  While  Shakspere's  image,  from  its  hallowed  base, 
Served  to  prescribe  the  grave  and  point  the  place." 

<  rarrick's  face,  it  is  said,  was  wonderfully  under 
control,  and  his  features  had  a  marvellous  flexi- 
bility, which  rendered  variety  and  rapid  change 
of  expression  an  easy  matter.  The  story  of  his 
having  frightened  Hogarth  by  standing  before 
him  as  the  ghost  of  Fielding,  assuming  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  dead  novelist   in  all   the   tixed- 


20  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

ness  and  rigidity  of  death,  has  often  been  told. 
There  are  many  original  portraits  of  Garrick  in 
existence.  The  Garrick  Club  in  London  pos- 
sesses at  least  a  dozen,  while  The  Players  in  New 
York  own  two  by  Zoffany,  and  one  by  Reynolds. 

A  not  uncommon  print,  entitled  "  The  Mask  of 
Garrick  taken  from  the  Face  after  Death,"  is  in 
the  Shaksperian  Library  at  Stratford-upon-Avon, 
and  it  is  to  be  found  in  Evans's  "  Catalogue  of  En- 
graved Portraits."  It  does  not  seem,  however,  to 
be  the  portrait  of  a  dead  man,  being  full  of  living- 
expression,  and  it  is,  perhaps,  an  enlarged  repro- 
duction of  the  face  in  the  miniature  by  Pine  of 
Bath,  now  in  the  Garrick  Club,  the  eyes  having 
the  same  dilatation  of  pupil  which  was  charac- 
teristic of  the  great  actor. 

The  mask  here  shown  was  purchased  in  1876 
from  the  late  Mr.  Marshall,  the  antiquarian  dealer 
in  Stratford,  who  possessed  what  he  believed  to 
be  its  pedigree  written  in  pencil  on  the  back  of 
the  plaster,  and  now  unfortunately  defaced.  He 
asserted  that  it  was  taken  from  life,  and  that  it 
had  come  by  direct  descent  from  the  sculptor's 
hands  into  his.  There  is  a  replica  of  it  in  the 
Sliakspere  Museum  at  Stratford,  but  no  history  is 
attached  to  it,  and  the  trustees  know  nothing 
about  it,  except  that  it  was  "  the  gift  of  the  late 


DAVID    GARRICK 


G  IBJtK  K—Kl  i  \  23 

Miss  Wheeler."  It  resembles  very  strongly  the 
familiar  portrait  of  Garrick  by  Hogarth,  the  orig- 
inal of  which  hangs  in  one  of  the  bedrooms  of 

Windsor  Castle. 

In  a  very  early  cast  of  the  Garrick  mask,  still 
existing  in  London,  the  texture  of  the  skin 
proves  conclusively  that  it  was  taken  from  nat- 
ure, and  most  probably  from  life. 

In  the  "Guild  Hall"  of  "The  City  of  Lush 
ington,"  an  ancient  and  very  unique  social  club, 
which  has  met  for  many  years  in  a  dark  and 
dingy  little  back  room  connected  with  the  Harp 
Tavern,  in  Eussell  Street,  Covent  Garden,  Lon- 
don, are  still  preserved  the  chair  of  Edmund 
Kean,  the  hole  in  the  wall  made  by  the  quart 
pot  he  threw  once,  in  a  fit  of  gross  insubordi- 
nation, at  a  former  "  Lord  Mayor,"  and  what  is 
religiously  considered  by  all  the  citizens  of  Lush- 
ingtou  to  be  a  death-mask  of  Kean  himself.  This 
cast  is  covered  with  glass  and  with  dust  and  its 
history  is  lost  in  the  mists  of  time.  There  is  no 
record  of  it  in  the  metropolitan  archives,  the 
corporation  will  not  permit  it  to  be  reproduced, 
even  by  photography,  and  it  bears  but  little  re- 
semblance to  Kean,  or  to  the  mask  in  my  pos- 
session, which  also  has  no  history,  but  which 
I  believe  to  be  authentic,  and  which  is  certainly 


24  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

very  like  the  sketch  of  Kean  done  in  oils  by 
George  Clint,  and  now  in  the  possession  of  Mr. 
Henry  Irving.  This  hurried  sketch  of  Clint's  is 
said  to  be  the  only  portrait  for  which  Kean  could 
be  induced  to  sit.  It  was  made  in  Kean's  bed- 
room in  a  few  hours,  and  it  is  the  groundwork  of 
more  than  one  finished  portrait  of  the  same  sub- 
ject by  the  same  artist.  The  portrait  of  Kean 
by  Neagle,  now  the  property  of  The  Players, 
lias  a  similar  tradition. 

The  Lushington  cast  is  perhaps  an  early  life- 
mask  of  the  elder  Kean,  perhaps  a  life-mask,  or 
a  death-mask,  of  the  younger  Kean,  more  prob- 
ably the  mask  of  some  defunct  and  common- 
place and  now  forgotten  mayor  or  alderman  of 
Lushington,  who  did  not  even  look  like  Kean. 

The  eye-witnesses  of  Kean's  theatrical  perform- 
ances were  generally  so  much  impressed  by  the 
force  of  his  acting  that  they  paid  little  attention 
to  his  personal  appearance.  We  read  in  Leslie's 
Autobiography  that  "  he  had  an  amazing  power 
of  expression  in  his  face,"  and  "  that  his  face, 
although  not  handsome,  was  picturesque ;"  a 
writer  in  the  New  Monthly  Magazine  in  1833 
spoke  of  him  as  "a  small  man  with  an  Italian 
face  and  fatal  eye;"  a  writer  in  Blackwood,  a 
few  years  later,  called  him  "  a  man  of  low  and 


EDMUND   KKAN 


A'/.'.IA 

meagre  figure,  of  a  Jewish  physiognomy,  and  ;i 
stifled  and  husky  voice;"  while  Miss  Fanny 
Kemble  said  that  "he  possessed  particular  phys- 
ical qualifications;  an  eye  like  an  orb  of  lighl  ;  a 
voice  exquisitely  touching  and  melodious  in  its 
tendencies,  but  in  the  harsh  dissonance  of  vehe 
ment  passion  terribly  true."  Barry  Cornwall,  in 
his  poor  Life  of  Kean,  spoke  of  "  his  thin,  dark- 
face,  full  of  meaning,  taking,  at  every  turn,  a 
sinister  or  vigilant  expression."  and  as  being 
••just  adapted  to  the  ascetic  and  revengeful  Shy- 
lock."  And  Henry  Crabb  Robinson  said  in  lSl-i, 
••  K can's  face  is  finely  expressive,  though  his 
mouth  is  not  handsome,  and  he  projects  his  low- 
er lip  ungracefully." 

The  portrait  of  Kean  by  Helen  Faucit,  Lady 
Martin,  is  the  best  that  has  been  presented  to 
us.  She  met  him  once  on  the  Green  at  Rich- 
mond when  she  was  a  child,  and  be  a  broken- 
down  old  man.  "I  was  startled,  frightened  at 
what  I  saw,"  she  wrote:  "a  small  pah'  man 
with  a  fur  cap,  and  wrapped  in  a  fur  cloak.  He 
looked  to  me  as  if  come  from  the  grave.  A 
stray  lock  of  very  dark'  hair  crossed  his  forehead, 
under  which  shone  eyes  which  looked  dark,  and 
yet  bright  as  lamps.  So  large  were  they,  so 
piercing,   so    absorbing,   I    could    see   no    other 


28  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

features.  .  .  .  Oh,  what  a  voice  was  that  which 
spoke !  It  seemed  to  come  from  far  away — a 
long,  long  way  behind  him.  After  the  first 
salutation,  it  said,  'Who  is  this  little  one?' 
When  my  sister  had  explained,  the  face  smiled ; 
I  was  reassured  by  the  smile,  and  the  face  looked 
less  terrible." 

Among  the  English-speaking  actors  of  later 
days  few  have  been  better  known  and  better 
liked,  in  America  at  all  events,  than  John  Mc- 
Cullough,  Dion  Boucicault,  Lawrence  Barrett, 
Henry  Edwards,  and  Edwin  Booth,  the  faces  of 
all  of  whom  I  am  able  to  present  here.  John 
McCullough,  the  first  of  this  galaxy  of  stars  to 
quit  the  stage  of  life,  was  a  man  of  strong  and 
attractive  personality,  if  not  a  great  actor;  he 
had  many  admirers  in  his  profession  and  many 
friends  out  of  it.  The  cloak  which  Forrest 
dropped  fell  upon  his  shoulders,  and  in  such 
parts  as  Virginius,  Damon,  and  the  Brutus  of 
John  Howard  Payne,  it  was  nobly  worn.  He 
was  as  modest,  as  simple,  and  as  manly  in  char- 
acter as  are  the  characters  he  represented  on 
the  stage.  Unhappily,  mental  disease  preceded 
McCullough's  death,  and  during  the  last  few 
years  of  his  life  those  who  loved  him  best 
prayed  for  the  rest  which  is  here  shown  on  his 


JOHN   M  C'CLLOUGU 


DION    BOUCICAULT 


B0UC1CAC1.T  33 

face.  The  post-mortem  examination  revealed  a 
brain  of  unusual  size  and  of  very  bigh  develop 
ment.  The  death-mask  was  made  by  Mr.  II.  II. 
Kit  sun,  <if   Boston. 

Dion  Boucicault,  worn  by  age,  died  in  the 
city  of  New  York  in  the  early  autumn  of 
L890.  He  was  one  of  the  most  remarkably 
versatile  men  of  the  century,  lie  was  a  fairly 
good  actor,  an  excellent  stage-manage]1,  an 
ingenious  stage  -  machinist,  an  admirable  judge 
of  plays  and  of  the  capacities  of  the  men  about 
him,  the  most  entertaining  of  companions,  a  man 
of  quick  wit,  of  restless  personality,  and  the  au- 
thor ami  adapter,  perhaps,  of  more  dramatic 
productions,  good  and  had,  than  any  man  who 
ever  lived.  The  cast  of  the  head  of  Bouci- 
cault was  made  the  day  after  his  death,  by 
Mr.  J.  Scott  Hartley,  of  New  York. 

Of  the  masks  of  Lawrence  Barrett  and  of 
Henry  Edwards  I  can  hardly  trust  myself 
to  speak  here  or  yet.  My  personal  friend- 
ship with  them  was  so  intimate,  my  affection 
so  strong,  and  their  taking  away  so  recent,  that 
I  can  only  look  upon  the  casts  of  their  dead 
laces  as  I  looked  upon  the  dead  faces  them- 
selves a  few  months  ago,  and  grieve  afresh  for 
what  1  have  losl 


34  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

Mr.  William  Winter,  who  knew  Barrett  long 
and  well,  has  spoken  of  "  his  stately  head  sil- 
vered during  the  last  few  years  with  graying 
hair,  of  his  dark  eyes  deeply  sunken  and  glow- 
ing with  intense  light,  of  his  thin  visage  paled 
with  study  and  with  pain,  of  his  form  of  grace, 
and  of  his  voice  of  sonorous  eloquence  and  sol- 
emn music,  one  of  the  few  great  voices  of  this 
present  dramatic  generation  in  its  compass,  va- 
riety, and  sweetness.  His  head  was  a  grand 
head  ;  his  face  beautiful  in  its  spirit,  its  braveiy, 
and  its  strength."  As  the  Eev.  John  A.  Chad- 
wick  finely  said  of  him  in  the  Christian  Regis- 
t<  /■,  "  The  noblest  part  he  ever  acted  was  the 
part  of  Lawrence  Barrett  —  an  honest,  brave, 
and  kindly  gentleman." 

Mr.  Barrett  was  one  of  the  little  party  who 
were  with  Mr.  Booth  when  the  idea  of  The 
Flayers  was  first  conceived,  and  who  helped 
their  friend,  the  Founder,  to  bring  that  associa- 
tion to  its  present  perfected  state.  Mr.  Barrett 
was  one  of  its  legal  incorporators ;  from  the  be- 
ginning until  his  death  he  was  a  member  of  its 
governing  body,  and  he  was  always  enthusias- 
tic in  his  devotion  to  it,  and  to  the  objects  for 
which  Mr.  Booth  had  endowed  it.  At  the  an- 
nual celebration  of  the  club,  held  upon  what  is 


LAWRENCE    BARRETT 


BARRETT— EDWARDS  37 

called  ••  Founder's  ISTight,"  December  31,  L890, 
Mr.  Barrett  read  aloud,  and  with  a  greal  deal 
of  feeling,  in  the  club-house,  Mr.  Thomas  Bailey 
Aldrich's  touching  poem  upon  Mr.  John  S.  Sar- 
gent's portrait  of  Mr.  Booth,  and  it  was  noticed 
by  many  present  that  his  voice  faltered  when 
he  spoke  of 

"Others  standing  in  the  place 
Where  save  as  ghosts  we  come  no  more." 

He  was  himself  the  first  of  those  present  to 
go  to  the  Land  of  Shadows.  That  his  gentle 
spirit  haunts  the  place,  and  will  haunt  it  pleas- 
antly for  many  years  to  come,  not  one  who  knew 
and  loved  him  there  can  for  a  moment  doubt. 

Henry  Edwards  was  not  only  an  actor  but  a 
man  of  science.  He  was  recognized  as  a  distin- 
guished entomologist  by  many  persons  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic  who  had  never  even  heard 
of  his  theatrical  career.  lie  left  a  magnificent 
collection  of  butterflies,  now  preserved  in  one  of 
the  leading  museums  of  America,  and  he  con- 
tributed to  the  press  of  both  countries  a  number 
of  valuable  books  and  pamphlets  upon  the  sub- 
ject he  loved.  His  work  upon  the  stage  was 
uniformly  good.  As  Mr.  Winter  said  of  him,  in 
a  funeral  oration,  he  did  not  astonish  and  dazzle ; 


38  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

he  satisfied.  He  excelled  in  the  representation 
of  rough  pathos,  of  bluff  good -humor,  and  of 
honest  indignation.  He  had  a  frank,  expressive, 
cheerful  face  and  a  hearty  voice.  He  was  a  man 
of  genuine,  healthy  honesty  and  simplicity,  who 
left  behind  him  many  warmly  attached  friends. 
He  was  sympathetic  and  always  interested  in 
anything  that  interested  the  men  about  him. 
Many  a  time  has  he  studied,  discussed,  and 
moralized  over,  the  collection  which  now,  alas ! 
contains  the  cast  of  his  own  dead  face.  The 
mask  was  made  by  Mr.  J.  Scott  Hartley. 

A  death-mask  of  Booth  was  taken  under  the 
direction  of  Mr.  Augustus  St.  Gaudens.  Al- 
though there  is  about  it  nothing  which  is  dis- 
tressing or  unpleasant,  his  family  and  his  friends 
prefer  to  have  it  withheld  from  the  public  gaze. 
The  life -mask  which,  by  the  courtesy  of  The 
Players,  prefaces  this  volume,  was  made  by  Mr. 
John  Rogers  in  186i,  when  Booth  was  in  the 
thirtieth  year  of  his  age,  and  in  the  zenith  of  his 
strength  and  his  beauty. 

Mrs.  Asia  Booth  Clarke  wrote  of  her  brother 
in  1857:  "He  had  come  back  [from  California] 
older  in  experience  only,  for  he  looked  a  boy 
still,  and  very  fragile ;  his  wild  black  eyes  and 
long  locks  gave  him  an  air  of  melancholy.     He 


HENRY    EDWARDS 


BOOTH  11 

had  tlic  gentle  dignity  and  inherent  grace  that 
one  attributes  to  a  young  prince;  yel  be  was 
merry,  cheerful,  and  boyish  in  disposition,  as 
one  can  imagine  Hamlet  to  have  been  in  the 
days  before  the  tragedy  was  enacted  in  the 
orchard." 

Mr.  Barrett,  who  supported  him  in  New  York 
a  few  months  later,  said  :  "  A  slight,  pale  youth, 
with  black,  flowing  hair,  soft  brown  eyes,  lull  of 
tenderness  and  gentle  timidity,  a  manner  mixed 
with  shyness  and  quiet  repose,  he  took  his  place 
[at  the  first  rehearsal]  with  no  air  of  conquest 
or  self-assertion,  and  gave  his  directions  with  a 
grace  and  courtesy  which  never  left  him." 

Mr.  Irving,  recalling  his  earliest  associations 
with  Booth  in  Manchester,  in  1861,  has  told  me 
that  the  young  actor  seemed  to  him  at  that  time 
to  be  the  most  magnificent  specimen  of  intellect- 
ual manhood  he  had  ever  seen.  And  George 
William  Curtis,  writing  in  1864,  said:  "Booth 
is  altogether  princely.  His  costume  is  still  the 
solemn  suit  of  sables,  varied  according  to  his 
fancy  of  greater  fitness ;  and  his  small,  lithe 
form,  with  the  mobility  and  intellectual  sadness 
of  his  face,  and  his  large,  melancholy  eyes,  sat- 
isfy the  most  fastidious  imagination  that  this  is 
Hamlet  as  he  lived  in  Shakspere's  time." 


42  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

Mrs.  M.  E.  TV".  Sherwood,  speaking  of  him  when 
he  was  in  his  perfect  prime,  in  the  part  of  Othello 
alludes  to  "  that  dark  face  to  which  the  Eastern 
robe  was  so  becoming,  seeming  at  once  to  be 
telling  its  mighty  story  of  adventure  and  con- 
quest. It  was  a  proud  and  beautiful  face.  Des- 
demona  was  not  worthy  of  it." 

Booth's  face  was  to  me  one  of  the  most  beau- 
tiful and  most  lovable  that  I  ever  looked  upon. 

The  only  feminine  heads  in  the  collection 
graced  once  the  shoulders  of  a  trio  of  queens,  a 
Queen  of  Tragedy,  a  Queen  of  Prussia,  and  a 
Queen  of  Song.  The  mask  of  Mrs.  Siddons  is  in 
the  possession  of  Mr.  Percy  Fitzgerald.  It  is 
generally  accepted  as  having  been  taken  from 
the  actual  face  of  the  great  actress,  but  its  pedi- 
gree or  its  history  Mr.  Fitzgerald  does  not 
know. 

A  bust  of  Mrs.  Siddons  by  J.  Smith,  57  Upper 
Norton  Street,  Marylebone,  was  exhibited  in  the 
Model  Room  of  the  Royal  Academy  in  1813,  the 
year  before  she  retired  from  the  stage.  Mr.  Ed- 
ward W.  Ilennell  has  an  autograph  letter  of  Mrs. 
Siddons,  undated  and  addressed  simply  "  Sir," 
but  written,  evidently,  to  this  artist  and  referring 
to  this  bust.  In  it  she  says,  "The  time  is  draw- 
ing near  which  will  bring  my  labors  to  an  end, 


EDWIN    BOOTH 


SIDDONS  I 

and  I  shall  then  hope  to  be  able  to  indulge  myself 
in  many  gratifications  of  which  they  have  hither 
to  deprived  me,  and  among  which  that  of  visiting 
your  study  will  stand  very  forward." 

It  is  not  improbable  that  Smith  made  a  cast 
of  Mrs.  Siddons's  face,  a  common  occurrence  in 
those  days,  although  unfortunately  no  such  oc- 
currence is  recorded  by  Mrs.  Siddons  herself,  or 
by  any  of  her  biographers. 

The  present  cast  is  believed  by  experts  to  have 
been  taken  from  life,  and  at  about  the  time  of 
Iter  retirement.  It  shows,  in  a  marked  degree, 
the  peculiar  thickness  of  the  underlip  remem 
bered  by  persons  still  living  who  remember  Mrs. 
Siddons,  and  noticeable  in  the  portraits  of  all 
the  Kembles  of  her  generation,  particularly  in 
those  of  the  great  actress  herself.  The  cast  re- 
sembles strongly  an  unfinished  sketch  of  her  in 
the  South  Kensington  Museum,  made  in  Iter  old 
age  by  an  unknown  artist,  and  it  is  not  unlike 
the  bust  she  made  of  herself,  now  in  the 
Dyce  Library  in  the  same  institution.  Other 
features  of  Mrs.  Siddons  were  as  prominent  as 
her  under-lip;  Gainsborough  is  said  to  have  re- 
marked to  her  once,  in  a  fit  of  almost  inspired 
courage,  "Damn  your  nose,  madam,  there  is 
no  end   to   it!"  and  she  herself  is  reported   to 


4U  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

have  said  that  "  the  jaw-bone  of  the  Kembles  is 
as  notorious  as  the  jaw-bone  used  by  Samson." 

The  personal  appearance  of  Mrs.  Siddons  has 
many  times  been  described,  but,  curiously  enough, 
none  of  her  contemporaries  allude  to  this  unusu- 
al development  of  the  lower  lip.  Mr.  Fitzgerald 
says  of  her  first  appearance:  "The  audience 
saw  a  frail,  delicate-looking,  but  pretty  creature, 
tottering  towards  them  rather  than  walking.  .  .  . 
The  criticism  of  the  pit  amounted  to  this,  'that 
she  was  a  pretty,  awkward,  and  interesting  creat- 
ure— frightfully  dressed.'  "  The  London  Morn- 
ing Post,  speaking  of  the  event,  said :  "  Her  fig- 
ure is  a  very  fine  one ;  her  features  are  beauti- 
fully expressive ;  her  action  is  graceful  and  easy, 
and  her  whole  deportment  that  of  a  gentle- 
woman." Thomas  Davies  wrote  later  :  "  Just 
rising  above  the  middle  stature,  she  looks,  walks, 
and  moves  like  a  woman  of  superior  rank.  Her 
countenance  is  expressive,  her  eye  so  full  of  in- 
formation that  the  passion  is  told  from  her  look 
before  she  speaks."  Madame  d'Arblay,  in  her 
Diary  (December  15,  1782),  wrote  that  "she  be- 
haved with  great  propriety  ;  very  calm,  modest, 
quiet  and  unaffected.  She  has  a  very  fine  coun- 
tenance, and  her  eyes  look  both  intelligent  and 
soft."    Leigh  Hunt  said,  "I  did  not  see  her,  I 


JIBS.  SIPDONS 


SIDDON&  49 

believe,  in  her  best  days;  bul  she  must  always 
have  been  a  somewhat  masculine  beauty." 
Peter  [rvinar  wrote  to  his  brother  Washington 
iii  1813:  "1  was  surprised  to  find  her  face,  even 
at  the  near  approach  of  sitting  by  her  side,  abso 
lately  handsome,  and  unmarked  l>y  any  of  those 
wrinkles  which  generally  attend  advanced  life. 
Her  form  is  at  present  becoming'  unwieldy,  but 
not  shapeless,  and  is  full  of  dignity.  Her  gest 
ures  and  movements  are  eminently  graceful." 
Two  years  later  George  Ticknor  wrote :  "  She  is 
now,  I  suppose,  sixty  years  old,  and  has  one  of 
the  finest  and  most  spirited  countenances  and 
one  of  the  most  dignified  and  commanding  per- 
sons I  ever  beheld,  ller  portraits  are  very  faith- 
ful as  to  her  general  air  and  outline,  but  no  art 
can  express  or  imitate  the  dignity  of  her  man- 
ner, or  the  intelligent  illumination  of  her  face." 
And  John  Howard  Payne  said  of  her  about  the 
same  period,  1817 :  "  The  grace  of  her  person, 
the  beauty  of  her  arms,  the  mental  beauty  of  her 
face,  the  tragic  expression  of  her  voice,  and  the 
perfect  identification  with  the  character  [Mrs. 
Beverley]  left  nothing  for  me  to  wish  for.  In 
these  she  was  so  great  that  even  her  unwieldy 
figure,  which  at  first  somewhat  annoyed  me,  was 
soon  forgotten." 


50  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

In  17S3  Mrs.  Siddons  called  on  Dr.  Johnson 
at  Bolt  Court,  and  he  gave  to  Mrs.  Thrale  an  ac- 
count of  how  she  impressed  him  by  her  "  modesty 
and  propriety."  lie  says  they  "  talked  of  plays," 
but,  unfortunately,  he  does  not  permit  himself  to 
say  what  he  thought  of  her  nose  or  her  mouth  or 
her  jaw. 

The  beautiful  Louise  of  Prussia,  mother  of  the 
first  Emperor  William  of  Germany,  lies  in  the 
family  mausoleum  at  Charlottenburg,  and  the 
cast  of  her  dead  face,  with  that  of  Frederick 
the  Great  and  of  others  of  their  distinguished 
countiymen  and  countrywomen,  is  preserved  in 
the  Museum  of  Berlin.  Her  last  illness  was 
severe  and  painful,  but  her  attendants  have  left 
on  record  the  fact  that  in  her  rare  intervals  of 
relief  from  suffering  "  she  was  very  tranquil,  and 
lay  looking  like  an  angel;"  that  "the  counte- 
nance was  beautiful  in  death,  particularly  the 
brow  ;  and  that  the  calm  expression  of  the  mouth 
told  that  the  struggle  was  forever  past." 

At  the  age  of  sixteen  she  was  thus  described : 
■•  She  was  like  her  sister  Charlotte  —  had  the 
same  loving  blue  eyes,  but  the  expression 
changed  more  quickly  with  the  feeling  or 
thought  of  the  moment.  Her  soft  brown  hair 
still  retained  a  gleam  of  the  golden  tints  of 


LOCISE    OF    PRUSSIA 


MALIBRAN  53 

childhood  :  her  fair,  transparent  complexion  was, 
in  the  bloom  of  its  exquisite  beauty,  painted  by 

nature  as  softly  as  were  the  roses  she  gathered 
and  enjoyed.  The  princess  was  tall  and  slight, 
and  graceful  in  her  movements.  This  grace  was 
not  merely  external;  it  arose  from  the  inner 
depths  of  a  pure  and  noble  mind,  and  therefore 
was  so  full  of  soul." 

Madame  Malibran,  the  Queen  of  Song,  died  in 
Manchester,  England,  in  1S3G.  The  mask  here 
reproduced  came,  perhaps,  from  the  collection  of 
George  Combe,  who  visited  America  a  few  years 
later. 

In  The  Memoirs  of  Malibran,  by  the  Countess 
de  Merlin,  is  the  emphatic  statement  that  out  of 
respect  to  the  wishes  of  M.  de  Beriot,  the  hus- 
band of  Malibran,  no  posthumous  sketch  or  cast 
of  her  face  of  any  kind  was  taken.  M.  Edmond 
Cottinet,  however,  in  a  private  note  to  Mrs. 
Clara  Bell,  wrote:  "When  Madame  Malibran 
died  I  was  very  young,  but  I  remember  distinctly 
hearing  my  mother  told  that  de  Beriot,  the  hus- 
band of  her  friend,  had  taken  her  mask,  and  that  it 
had  helped  him  to  execute  the  crowned  bust  of 
the  great  singer  which  now  decorates  the  private 
cabinet  of  her  son.  His  bust,  nevertheless,  is 
not  a  good  likeness,  nor  is  it  agreeable.     But  it 


54  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

is  a  touching  proof  of  the  love  of  the  widower. 
Is  it  not  wonderful  that  simply  by  the  force  of 
this  love  a  musician  should  have  been  trans- 
formed into  a  sculptor  \  This  was  M.  de  Beriot's 
only  work  in  this  line  of  art."  Later,  M.  Cottinet, 
having  seen  a  photograph  of  the  mask,  added : 
"  It  is  she  !  The  first  moment  I  saw  it  I  recog- 
nized it,  with  feeling's  of  profound  emotion  and 
tender  pity.  It  is  she,  with  her  slightly  African 
type,  containing,  perhaps,  a  little  negro  blood 
(her  father,  Garcia,  being  of  Spanish-Moorish  de- 
scent). It  is  she  as  death  found  her,  her  face 
ruined  by  that  terrible  fall  from  her  horse.  ...  It 
is  undoubtedly  the  mask  from  which  her  husband 
made  the  bust,  which  did  not  seem  to  be  as 
charming  as  she  was.  Mr.  Ilutton  may  be  per- 
fectly satisfied  that  he  possesses  an  authentic 
cast." 

The  head  of  Schiller  has  lain  as  uneasily  since 
his  deatli  as  if  he  had  worn  a  crown,  or,  like 
Cromwell,  had  rejected  one.  The  story  of  its 
posthumous  wanderings  is  very  grewsome.  It 
is  told  at  length  by  Emil  Palleske  in  his  Life 
of  Schiller,  and  at  greater  length  by  Mr.  An- 
drew Hamilton.  The  poet  left  a  widow  and 
family  almost  friendless  and  almost  penniless ; 
his  brother-in-law  Wolzogen  was  absent,  and 


MARIA    F.    MALIBRAN 


SCHILLER 

Goethe  lay  very  ill.  A  cast  of  Schiller's  head 
was  taken  by  Klauer;  and  his  body,  hurriedly 
put  into  ;i  plain  deal  coffin  of  the  cheapest  kind, 
was  buried  in  a  public  vault,  with  nothing  to 
designate  whose  body  it  was.  and  without  the 
utterance  of  a  word  or  a  note  of  requiem. 
Twenty-one  years  later,  as  was  the  custom  of 
the  place,  this  public  vault  was  emptied,  and 
the  bones  it  contained  were  scattered  to  make 
room  for  a  new  collection.  Friends  of  Schiller, 
after  great  and  unpleasant  labor,  gathered  to- 
gether twenty-three  of  these  dishonored  skulls, 
from  winch  they  selected  as  Schiller's  that  one 
"  which  differed  enormously  from  all  the  rest 
in  size  and  shape;"  they  compared  it  with 
Klauer's  cast,  and  accepted  its  identity.  It 
was  then  deposited,  with  no  little  ceremony, 
in  the  hollow  pedestal  containing  Dannecker's 
colossal  bust  of  Schiller  in  the  Grand  Ducal 
Library  at  "Weimar.  Goethe,  however,  desir- 
ing to  recover  more  of  the  mortal  part  of  his 
friend,  had  the  head  removed  again  and  fitted 
to  the  rest  of  the  bones  of  the  body.  These 
bones  were  deposited  also  in  the  Library,  and 
the  head  put  back  in  its  pedestal.  In  1 827,  at 
the  suggestion  of  Louis  of  Bavaria,  the  head 
and  the  trunk  were  reunited  and  placed   in  a 


58  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

vault  which  the  grand  duke  had  built  for  him- 
self and  for  his  own  family  ;  and  there,  by  the 
side  of  Goethe,  who  joined  him  in  1832,  Schiller 
still  rests. 

Palleske,  describing  Schiller's  death,  says : 
"  Suddenly  an  electric  shock  seemed  to  vibrate 
through  him,  the  most  perfect  peace  lit  up  his 
countenance,  his  features  were  those  of  one 
calmly  sleeping."  And  this  is  the  impression 
his  death-mask  gives. 

Carlyle  in  one  of  his  flash-light  pictures  thus 
photographed  Schiller — the  negative  was  found 
in  the  Commonplace  -  book  of  the  late  Lord 
Houghton — "  He  was  a  man  with  long  red  hair, 
aquiline  nose,  hollow  cheeks,  and  covered  with 
snuff." 

A  strange  uneasiness  seems  to  have  possessed 
the  bones  of  many  of  the  great  composers.  Mo- 
zart's skull  is  said  to  be  in  the  possession  of 
Prof.  Hyrtl,  the  famous  anatomist  of  Vienna, 
who  proposes  to  bequeath  it  to  the  Mozarteum 
at  Salzburg.  Mozart,  like  Schiller,  was  buried 
by  an  impoverished  family  in  a  grave  unmarked 
save  by  a  musical  grave-digger,  who  secured  the 
head — according  to  what  seems  to  be  very  vague 
tradition — ten  years  later,  and  kept  it,  so  long  as 
he  himself  lived,  in  a  cupboard  in  his  humble 


FRKDKRIt'K    SCHILLER 


II.\  YDN—BEETH.0  I  EA  c,i 

lodgings  in  the  precincts  of  the  Cemetery  of  St. 
Marx.  From  him  it  passed  to  a  second  grave- 
digger,  also  musical,  from  whom  it  came  into 
the  possession  of  the  Hyrtls.  Those  who  have 
examined  it.  however,  say  that  it  has  none  of 
the  peculiarities  which,  according  to  the  exist 
ing  theories  of  phrenology,  should  mark  the 
presence  of  musical  genius.  And  these  peculi- 
arities, strangely  enough,  are  said  to  have  been 
lacking  in  the  skulls  of  Haydn,  Schubert,  and 
Beethoven,  each  of  which,  like  the  skulls  of 
Mozart  and  Schiller  and  of  Shakspere's  Yor- 
ick,  had  a  tongue  in  it,  and  could  sing  once ; 
and  each  seems  to  have  been  knocked  about  the 
mazzard  with  a  sexton's  spade,  and  to  have  been 
used  to  point  a  moral,  and,  perhaps,  even  to  stop 
a  bunghole. 

Haydn's  skull,  it  may  be  mentioned,  is  be- 
lieved to  be  in  the  possession  of  the  family 
of  an  eminent  physician  in  Vienna.  The  rest 
of  his  body,  originally  buried  in  Hundsthurn 
church -yard,  now  lies  in  the  parish  church  of 
Eisenstadt . 

Beethoven's  bones  seem  to  have  been  dis- 
turbed but  twice.  His  grave,  in  the  Wahring 
Cemetery  at  Vienna,  having  become  almost  un- 
inhabitable from  long  neglect,  he  was  reburied 


62  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

in  the  same  spot  in  1S<13;  and  in  1S88  he  was 
removed  to  the  Central  Cemetery  of  Vienna. 

Beethoven's  head  is  described,  by  those  who 
knew  him  in  life,  as  having  been  uncommonly 
large.  His  forehead  was  high  and  expanded. 
His  eyes,  when  he  laughed,  seemed  to  sink  into 
his  head,  although  they  were  distended  to  an 
unusual  degree  when  one  of  his  musical  ideas 
took  possession  of  his  mind.  His  mouth  was 
well- formed  ;  his  under-lip  protruded  a  little; 
his  nose  was  rather  broad.  According  to  one 
authority  "his  skull  [at  the  time  of  the  exhu- 
mation in  1863]  was  discovered  to  be  very  com- 
pact throughout,  and  about  an  inch  thick ;"  ac- 
cording to  another  authority  it  was  "  a  small 
skull,  and  might  have  been  supposed  to  belong 
to  a  man  of  restricted  intellect,  rather  than  to  a 
genius  like  the  great  master." 

Mr.  Philip  Hale,  in  Famous  Composers  and 
tli,  ir  Works,  says:  "The  dimensions  of  the  fore- 
head were  extraordinary  ;  in  height  the  forehead 
came  next  to  that  of  Napoleon,  and  in  breadth  it 
surpassed  it.  His  face  was  strong  and  sombre, 
and  while  it  was  not  without  ugliness  it  was  ex- 
pressive. The  head  was  built  stoutly  through- 
out. The  nose  was  thick,  the  jaw  was  broad, 
the  mouth  was  firm  and  with  protruding  lips  ;  the 


LTTDWIG    VON    HEETHOTKN From  Life 


I.ITnVIG    VON    BKETHOTEN — Iron.  Death 


BEETHOVEN  61 

teeth  were  white,  well  -  shaped,  and  sound,  and 
when  he  laughed  he  showed  them  freely;  the 
square  chin  rested  ona  white  cravat.  The  greater 
number  of  pictures  of  Beethoven  arc  idealized." 

Beethoven's  left  ear-shell,  it  is  said,  is  preserved 
in  the  cabinet  of  curiosities  of  a  musical  fam- 
ily in  England.  The  mask  of  his  face  is  one  of 
the  few  casts  of  notable  men  to  be  found  in  the 
Museum  of  the  British  Phrenological  Association 
in  Ludgate  Circus,  London.  It  reposes,  in  plas- 
ter, in  that  institution,  by  the  side  of  the  cast  of 
the  head  of  Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan. 

Two  masks  of  Beethoven  are  in  existence. 
The  first  was  taken  from  life  by  Franz  Klein  in 
1S12,  when  the  subject  was  in  his  forty-scennd 
year.  Mr.  Hale  considers  this  ''and  the  bust 
made  after  it  by  the  same  artist  as  of  the  liist 
importance  in  forming  a  correct  judgment  of  the 
value  of  all  the  portraits  of  Beethoven."  The 
second  mask  was  made  by  Dannhauser,  on 
March  28,  1827,  two  days  after  Beethoven  died. 
Both  casts  are  here  reproduced. 

Beethoven  was  fond  of  telling  the  following 
story  about  himself.  It  will  give  a  very  fair  idea 
of  what  he  considered  to  be  the  size  of  his  own 
cranium.  Meeting  the  entire  Imperial  Family  of 
Austria,  on  one  occasion,  at  Toplitz,  in  the  sum- 


68  PORTRAITS  IX  PLASTER 

mer  of  1812,  "  I  pressed  my  hat  down  on  my 
head,"  he  said,  "  buttoned  up  my  great-coat,  and 
walked  with  folded  arms  through  the  thickest  of 
the  throng;  princes  and  pages  formed  a  line — 
the  Archduke  Rudolph  took  off  his  hat,  and  the 
Emperor  made  the  first  salutation.  Those  gen- 
try know  me !" 

It  is  hardly  to  be  wondered  at  that  Goethe, 
who  was  his  companion,  should  have  been  made 
very  uncomfortable  by  the  display  of  what  looks 
like  a  piece  of  impertinence,  even  to  republican 
eyes,  and  even  at  the  end  of  three-quarters  of  a 
century  of  enlightenment.  It  is  pleasant  to  read 
that  royalty  itself  was  highly  amused  by  the 
whole  performance. 

Perhaps  the  best  pen-picture  of  Mendelssohn 
in  existence  is  that  taken  by  Bayard  Taylor,  who 
wrote  that  "his  eyes  were  dark,  lustrous,  and 
unfathomable.  They  were  black,  but  without 
the  usual  opaqueness  of  black  eyes ;  shining,  not 
with  a  surface  light,  but  with  a  pure  serene  plan- 
etary flame.  His  brow,  white  and  unwrinkled, 
was  high  and  nobly  arched,  with  great  breadth 
at  the  temples,  and  strongly  resembling  that  of 
Poe.  His  nose  had  the  Jewish  prominence, 
without  its  usual  coarseness ;  I  remember  partic- 
ular!}- that  the  nostrils  were  as  finely  cut  and  as 


FELIX    MENDELSSOHN 


MENDELSSOHN 

flexible  as  an  Arab's.  The  lips  were  thin  and 
rather  long,  but  with  an  expression  of  undescrib 
able  sweetness  in  their  delicate  curves.  His  face 
was  a  long  oval  in  form,  and  the  complexion 
pale,  but  not  pallid.  As  I  looked  upon  him  1 
said  to  myself— •  The  Prophet  David!"5 

Lampadius,  in  his  Life  oj'  M<  ndi  Issohn,  said  of 
the  composer's  death:  "  His  features  soon  as- 
sumed an  almost  glorified  expression.  So  much 
he  looked  like  one  in  sleep  that  some  of  his  friends 
thought  that  it  could  not  be  death,  an  illusion 
which  is  often  given  to  the  eye  of  love.  His 
friends  Bendemann  and  Eiibner  took  a  cast  of 
his  features  as  he  lay." 

A  clever  Frenchman  said  not  long  since,  in  the 
Paris  Gaulois,  that  the  Pantheon  is  nothing  but 
a  Grand  Hotel,  in  which  the  distinguished  guests 
find  a  temporary  lodging- place,  and  then,  like 
other  transients,  give  up  their  rooms  to  somebody 
else.  Mirabeau,  Marat,  Rousseau,  and  Voltaire 
boarded  there  for  a  time,  and  then  surrendered 
their  apartments,  which  are  now  occupied  l>y 
Victor  Hugo  and  a  few  men  of  no  literary,  artis- 
tic, or  political  importance;  all  of  whom  will,  no 
doubt,  in  their  turn,  and  before  many  years,  be 
forced  to  find  some  second-class  p<  nsion,  where 
the  rates  are  lower  and  the  service  is  bad. 


72  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

It  was  discovered  lately  that  Mirabeau  had 
again  changed  his  quarters,  and  that  his  present 
address  cannot  lie  ascertained.  He  was  carried 
in  great  pomp,  and  with  many  porters  and  in 
many  'busses,  to  the  Pantheon,  in  1791 ;  but  with 
Marat  he  was  "de-Pantheonized  by  order  of 
the  National  Convention"  a  year  or  two  later. 
Marat's  body  was  thrown  into  a  common  sewer 
in  the  Rue  Montmartre ;  that  of  Mirabeau  was 
placed,  with  no  pomp  whatever,  in  the  cemetery 
of  Saint-Marcel,  the  criminals'  burying-ground, 
where,  now  that  it  is  wanted  once  more — this 
time  for  honorable  disposal — it  cannot  be  found. 
Mirabeau' s  is  the  face  of  a  man  perfectly  satisfied 
with  his  own  achievements  and  with  his  own 
personal  appearance.  He  believed,  and  he  was 
courageous  enough  to  say,  that  pure  physical 
beauty  in  man  could  only  exist  in  a  face  which  was 
pitted  with  small-pox,  his  own  being  so  marked ! 
And  he  looks  here  as  if  his  last  thought  in  life 
had  been  one  of  profound  admiration  for  himself. 
An  eye-witness  of  his  funeral  said  to  one  of  his 
biographers  that,  "  except  a  single  trace  of  physi- 
cal suffering,  one  perceived  with  emotion  the 
most  noble  calm  and  the  sweetest  smile  upon 
that  face,  which  seemed  enwrapped  in  a  living 
sleep,  and  occupied  with  an  agreeable  dream." 


G.  R.   MIIIAHEAU 


MA1UT    R0BESPI1   i 

Maral  and  Robespierre  are  among  the  most 
enigmatical  productions  of  a  very  enigmatical 
movement.  During  their  lives  they  were  nol 
very  beautiful  in  conduct  nor  very  amiable  in 
character;  but  the  casts  taken  of  their  faces 
after  their  uncomfortable  deaths  are  quiet  and 
peaceful,  and  the  effect  they  produce  is  one  of 
loving  rather  than  loathing.  In  the  mask  of 
each  the  cerebral  development  is  small,  especially 
in  the  region  of  the  frontal  bone;  and  phren- 
ological experts  who  have  examined  them  sa\ 
that  their  development,  or  lack  of  development, 
taken  with  their  facial  traits,  indicates  ill -bal- 
anced minds. 

Marat's  face,  as  David  painted  him,  is  that  of 
a  North- American  Indian  with  a  white  skin. 
The  contemporary  portraits  of  Robespierre,  on 
the  other  hand,  represent  a  mild-mannered  man 
of  severe  and  pensive  expression.  According  to 
Lamartine,  "his  forehead  was  good,  but  small. 
and  projecting  over  the  temples,  as  if  enlarged 
by  the  mass  and  embarrassed  movements  of  his 
thoughts.  His  eyes,  much  veiled  by  their  lids, 
and  very  sharp  at  the  extremities,  were  deeply 
buried  in  the  cavities  of  their  orbits;  they  were 
of  a  soft  blue  color.  His  nose,  straight  and  small. 
was  very  wide  at  the  nostrils,  which  were  high 


76  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

and  too  expanded.  His  mouth  was  large,  his  lips 
thin  and  disagreeably  contracted  at  each  corner, 
his  chin  small  and  pointed.  His  complexion  was 
yellow  and  livid.  The  habitual  expression  of 
his  face  was  the  superficial  serenity  of  a  grave 
mind,  and  a  smile  wavering  betwixt  sarcasm  and 
sweetness.  There  was  softness,  but  of  a  sinister 
character.  The  dominant  characteristic  of  his 
countenance  was  the  prodigious  and  continued 
tension  of  brow,  eyes,  mouth,  and  all  the  facial 
muscles." 

The  masks  of  Mirabeau,  Marat,  and  Robes- 
pierre are  known  to  have  been  taken,  in  each 
case,  after  death,  "  by  order  of  the  National 
Assembly."  Those  of  Marat  and  Robespierre  in 
my  collection  are  identical  with  the  wax  effigies 
in  the  "  Chamber  of  Horrors  "  in  Madame  Tus- 
saud's  gallery  in  London,  her  catalogue  assert- 
ing that  they  are  "  authentic ;"  and  very  fine 
casts  of  Mirabeau  and  Marat  are  in  the  Musee 
C'arnavalet  in  Paris,  the  latter  hanging  under 
David's  portrait  of  Marat,  painted  from  nature 
immediately  after  the  assassination. 

The  contemporaries  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  like 
those  of  Kean,  were  all  so  much  impressed  by 
what  he  knew  and  by  what  he  did,  that  they 
seldom  thought  of  posterity  as  caring  to  know 


JEAN    PAUL    MARAT 


MAXIMII.I  A  N    ROBESPIERRE 


NEWTON  -t 

how  he  looked,  either  in  life  or  in  death.  From 
many  different  sources,  however,  we  learn,  in  a 
fragmentary  way.  thai  he  was  ••short  but  well- 
set,  anil  inclined  to  be  corpulent;"  that  "he  had 
a  very  lively  and  piercing  eye;"  that  "his  hair 
was  abundant  and  white  as  silver,  without  any 
baldness,  and  when  his  peruke  was  off  was  a  vener- 
able sight ;"  that  "■  lie  was  a  man  of  no  very  pr<  >mi- 
nent  aspect;"  that  "his  face  was  almost  square. 
and  that  his  chin  had  unusual  width;"  that 
"although  he  reached  the  great  age  of  eighty- 
four,  he  retained  until  the  last  almost  all  of  his 
teeth;"  and  that  "his  countenance  was  mild, 
pleasant,  and  comely."  Bishop  Atterbury  said, 
"in  the  whole  air  of  his  face  and  make  there 
was  nothing  of  that  penetrating  sagacity  which 
appears  in  his  compositions.  He  had  something 
rather  languid  in  his  look  and  manner,  which  did 
not  raise  any  very  great  expectation  in  those 
who  did  not  know  him;"  and  Dr.  Humphrey 
Newton,  who  was  his  assistant  and  amanuensis. 
said  that  during  the  many  years  of  their  intimate 
association  he  never  knew  him  to  laugh  but  once! 
His  death  was  not  without  pain,  and  his  mask- 
will  not  be  recognized  readily  by  those  who  are 
familiar  with  his  face  as  pictured  ami  sculptured 
with  his  peruke  on. 


S3  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

If  Sir  David  Brewster's  account  of  Newton's 
life  be  the  true  one,  he  was  as  good  as  he  was 
great,  and  nothing  can  be  added  to  that.  His 
portraits  by  Lely,  Kneller,  and  other  famous 
painters  still  exist  in  different  parts  of  Great 
Britain. 

The  terra-cotta  bust  of  Newton,  from  the  hand 
of  Boubilliac,  is  in  the  British  Museum.  His 
bust  and  full  -  length  statue  in  marble,  by  the 
same  artist,  belong  to  Trinity  College,  Cam- 
bridge. They  were  both,  as  is  well  known,  based 
upon  this  mask  of  his  face,  taken  after  death,  the 
original  of  which,  made  by  Boubilliac,  is  now  in 
the  rooms  of  the  Royal  Society,  at  Burlington 
House  in  London.  It  was  presented  to  that  in- 
stitution in  1829  by  Samuel  Hunter  Christie, 
and  the  officers  of  the  society  have  no  doubt  of 
its  authenticity.  Mr.  Christie  found  it  by  acci- 
dent in  the  shop  of  a  dealer  in  statuary,  whose 
father  had  purchased  it  at  the  sale  of  Boubilliac's 
effects  more  than  half  a  century  before.  The 
dealer  parted  with  it  for  a  few  shillings,  although 
he  was  satisfied  that  it  was  the  mask  of  Newton, 
and  by  Boubilliac.  Charles  Bicbard  Weld,  in 
his  History  of  the  Royal  Society,  gave  a  steel  en- 
graving of  it,  and  declared  that  "  it  presents  all 
the  characteristic  features  of  the  Society's  for- 


SIR    ISAAC    NEWTON 


(  ir.v/'  85 

hut  illustrious  president."  Only  a  few  copies  of 
it  are  known  to  exist,  and  it  is  one  of  the  most 
valuable  and  important  masks  in  my  collection. 

Roubilliac's  mask  of  Alexander  Pope  was  one 
of  the  cherished  possessions  of  Samuel  Rogers, 
but  its  present  whereabouts  I  have  not  been  able 
to  discover. 

The  contrasts  between  the  profoundest  of  Eng- 
land's philosophers  and  the  bravest  of  her  bruisers 
are  as  marked  in  an  intellectual  as  in  a  physical 
way.  Ben  Caunt,  the  pugilist,  died  in  London 
in  1861,  universally  respected.  He  was,  during 
the  later  years  of  his  life,  proprietor  of  the 
Coach  and  Horses,  a  public-house  in  St.  Martin's 
Lane,  much  frequented  by  his  old  pupils,  and 
by  all  the  prominent  patrons  of  the  prize-ring. 
He  came  to  America  in  the  early  Forties,  giving 
a  series  of  exhibitions  throughout  the  country, 
but  never  engaging  in  any  serious  encounter 
here.  He  was  a  leader  in  his  own  profession, 
and  at  one  time,  perhaps,  the  best-known  man  in 
all  England.  His  portrait,  which  once  adorned 
the  walls  of  cottage  and  palace,  is  still  to  be 
found  in  Miles's  Pugilistica,  taken  at  the  period 
of  his  famous  tight  with  "Bendigo"  in  1S42. 
His  head  is  certainly  a  strong  one,  and,  in  a 
phrenological  way,  he  was  better  than  many  of 


86  PORTRAITS  IX  PLASTER 

the  men  among  his  contemporaries  who  did  bet- 
ter things. 

Thackeray,  like  most  Anglo-Indian  infants,  was 
sent,  when  he  was  about  five  years  of  age,  to  the 
mother-country  for  mental  and  physical  nourish- 
ment. An  aunt,  with  whom  he  lived,  discovered 
the  child  one  morning  parading  about  in  his 
uncle's  hat,  which  exactly  fitted  him.  Fearing 
some  abnormal  and  dangerous  development  of 
the  brain,  she  carried  him  at  once  to  a  famous 
physician  of  the  day,  who  is  reported  to  have 
said,  "  Don't  be  afraid,  madam ;  he  has  a  large 
head,  but  there's  a  good  deal  in  it !"  How  much 
was  in  it  subsequent  events  have  certainly  proved. 
His  brain,  when  he  died,  fifty-three  years  later, 
weighed  fifty-eight  and  a  half  ounces.  In  1849 
or  185(>,  Charlotte  Bronte  wrote  of  Thackeray : 
"  To  me  the  broad  brow  seems  to  express  intel- 
lect. Certain  lines  about  the  nose  and  cheek  be- 
tray the  satirist  and  cynic ;  the  mouth  indicates 
a  childlike  simplicity — perhaps  even  a  degree  of 
irresoluteness  in  consistency — weakness  in  short, 
but  a  weakness  not  unamiable."  And  Motley, 
writing  to  his  wife  in  1858,  said  :  "  I  believe 
vou  have  never  seen  Thackeray ;  he  has  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  colossal  infant,  smooth,  white, 
shining  ringlety  hair,  flaxen,  alas !  with  advanc- 


BEN.   CAUNT 


WILLIAM    MAKEPEACE    THACKERAY 


Tll.li  KEB  I  )  W 

ing  years;  a  roundish  face,  with  a  little  dab  of  a 
noso.  upon  which  it  is  a  perpetual  wonder  how 
he  keeps  his  spectacles."  This  broken  nose  was 
always  a  source  of  amusement  to  Thackeray 
himself;  he  caricatured  it  in  his  drawings,  he 
frequently  alluded  to  it  in  his  speech  and  in  his 
letters,  and  lie  was  fond  of  repeating  Douglas 
Jerrold's  remark  to  him  when  he  was  to  stand  as 
godfather  to  a  friend's  son—"  Lord,  Thackeray, 
I  hope  you  won't  present  the  child  with  your 
own  mug!" 

It  is  not  pleasant  to  look  upon  the  face  of 
Thackeray — the  face  of  which  we  love  to  think- 
so  pleasantly  —  as  distorted  by  death.  He  was 
found  deail  in  his  bed  on  the  morning  of  Decem- 
ber 24,  1863: — "So  young  a  man,"  as  Dickens 
wTrote,  "that  the  mother  who  blessed  him  in  his 
first  sleep  blessed  him  in  Ins  last.  The  final 
words  he  corrected  in  print,"  continued  Dickens, 
"were  —  'And  mv  heart  throbbed  with  an  ex- 
quisite bliss.'  God  grant  that  on  that  Christmas 
eve  when  he  laid  his  head  back  on  his  pillow,  and 
threw  up  his  arms  as  he  had  been  wont  to  do 
when  very  weary,  some  consciousness  of  duty 
done,  and  Christian  hope  throughout  life  humbly 
cherished,  may  have  caused  his  heart  so  to  throb 
when  he  passed  away  to  his  Eedeemer's  rest!" 


92  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

"  And,  lo,"  said  Thackeray  himself  once,  of  the 
most  beautiful  character  in  all  fiction,  his  own 
Thomas  Kewcome —  "And,  lo,  he  whose  heart 
was  as  that  of  a  little  child  had  answered  to  his 
name,  and  stood  in  the  presence  of  The  Master !" 

"We  think  of  Thackeray,"  wrote  Dr.  John 
Brown,  of  Edinburgh,  "  as  of  our  Chalmers, 
found  dead  in  like  manner :  the  same  childlike, 
unspoiled,  open  face,  the  same  gentle  mouth,  the 
same  spaciousness  and  softness  of  nature,  the 
same  look  of  power.  What  a  thing  to  think  of 
— his  lying  there  alone  in  the  dark,  in  the  midst 
of  his  own  mighty  London  ;  his  mother  and  his 
daughters  asleep,  and,  it  may  be,  dreaming  of  his 
goodness.  Long  years  of  sorrow,  labor,  and  pain 
had  killed  him  before  his  time.  It  was  found 
after  death  how  little  life  he  had  to  live.  He 
looked  always  fresh  with  that  abounding  silver 
hair,  and  his  loving,  almost  infantile  face ;  but 
he  was  worn  to  a  shadow,  and  his  hands  wasted 
as  if  by  eighty  years." 

The  cast  of  Thackeray's  face  was  made  by 
Brucciani  <>n  that  sad  Christmas  morning,  at  the 
request  of  Dr.,  now  Sir,  Henry  Thompson ;  and 
a  cast  of  his  right  hand  was  made  at  the  same 
time  —  that  honest,  faithful,  beautiful,  wasted 
right  hand,  which 


THOMAS    L'HALMKRS 


CHAL  VERS  95 

never  writ  :i  flattery, 
Nor  signed  the  page  that  registered  a  lie." 

Thomas  Chalmers  was  another  man  of  great 
heart  and  of  great  head.  lie  died,  as  we  have 
seen,  as  Thackeray  died,  without  warning,  but 
without  pain  or  conflict.  He  was  discovered 
sitting  half  erect  in  his  bed,  his  head  reclining 
quietly  on  his  pillow,  the  expression  of  his  coun- 
tenance that  of  fixed  and  majestic  repose.  He 
had  responded  cheerfully  when  his  name  was 
called.  Thackeray  heard  the  summons  evident- 
ly in  a  moment  of  physical  distress ;  but  his 
"  Ads  urn"  was  just  as  ready,  and  no  doubt  it 
was  quite  as  willingly  uttered. 

"  In  height  and  breadth  and  in  general  configu- 
ration,"  wrote  Julian  Charles  Young,  "  Dr.  Chal- 
mers was  not  unlike  Coleridge.  I  have,  since  I 
knew  Coleridge,  sometimes  thought  that  if  Chal- 
mers's head  had  been  buried  from  sight,  I  could 
easily  have  mistaken  him  for  that  remarkable 
man.  His  face  was  pallid  and  pasty,  and,  I 
rather  think,  showed  slight  traces  of  small-pox. 
His  features  were  ordinary  ;  his  hair  was  scanty, 
and  generally  roughed,  as  if  his  fingers  had  often 
passed  through  it ;  his  brow  was  not  high,  but 
very  broad,  and  well  developed.  His  skull,  pliren- 
ologically  speaking,  argued  great  mathematical 


9B  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

power,  but  showed  deficiency  in  the  very  quali- 
ties for  which  he  was  conspicuous,  namely,  be- 
nevolence and  veneration." 

Concerning  Coleridge,  Young  wrote :  "  His 
general  appearance  would  have  led  me  to  sup- 
pose him  a  dissenting  minister.  His  hair  was 
long,  white,  and  neglected ;  his  complexion  was 
florid ;  his  features  were  square ;  his  eyes  wa- 
tery and  hazy  ;  his  brow  broad  and  massive ;  his 
build  uncouth ;  his  deportment  grave  and  ab- 
stracted." 

Charles  Cowden  Clarke,  in  his  Recollections, 
spoke  of  Coleridge  as  "  large-presenced,  ample- 
countenanced,  grand-foreheaded,"  and  said  that 
"the  upper  part  of  his  face  was  excessively  fine. 
His  eyes  were  large,  light  gray,  prominent,  and 
of  a  liquid  brilliancy.  The  lower  part  of  his  face 
was  somewhat  dragged,  indicating  the  presence 
of  habitual  pain ;  but  his  forehead  was  prodig- 
ious, and  like  a  smooth  slab  of  alabaster."  Leigh 
Hunt  likened  his  brow  to  "a  great  piece  of  plac- 
id marble,"  and  added  that  even  in  his  old  age 
"there  was  something  invincibly  young  in  the 
look  of  his  face."  "  This  boylike  expression  "  he 
considered  "  very  becoming  in  one  who  dreamed 
and  speculated  as  Coleridge  did  when  he  was 
really  a  boy,  and  who  passed  his  entire  life  apart 


SAMUEL   TAYLOR    COLERIDGE 


COLERIDGE  99 

from  the  rest  of  the  world  with  a  book  and  his 
flowers." 

Carlyle's  portrait  of  Coleridge  is  peculiarly  in 
the  Carlylian  vein.  "Figure  a  fat,  flabby,  in- 
ourvated  personage,  at  once  short,  rotund,  and 
relaxed ;  with  a  watery  mouth ;  a  snuffy  nose ; 
a  pair  of  strange  brown,  timid,  and  yet  earnest- 
looking  eyes  ;  a  high  tapering  brow  ;  and  a  great 
brush  of  gray  hair — and  you  have  some  faint 
idea  of  Coleridge." 

Coleridge  himself  was  not  more  flattering  to 
Coleridge.  In  1796  he  wrote  to  John  Thelwall : 
'•  My  face,  unless  when  animated  by  immediate 
eloquence,  expresses  great  sloth,  and  great,  in- 
deed almost  idiotic,  good-nature.  'Tis  a  mere 
carcass  of  a  face,  fat,  flabby,  and  expressive 
chiefly  of  inexpression.  Yet  I  am  told  that  my 
eyes,  eyebrows,  and  forehead  are  physiognomi- 
callv  good." 

Mrs.  Sara  Coleridge,  in  her  Memoir,  gave  a 
long  account  of  Coleridge's  death  and  burial,  in 
which  she  said  that  "  his  body  was  opened,  ac- 
cording to  his  own  urgent  recpiest ;"  but,  as  us- 
ual in  such  cases,  she  did  not  allude  to  the  mak- 
ing of  anv  cast  of  his  face  or  head." 

Mr.  Ernest  Hartley  Coleridge,  however,  the 
son  of  Derwrent  Coleridge,  who  is  preparing  a 


100  PORTRAITS  IN  FL ASTER 

Life  of  his  illustrious  grandfather,  writes,  in  a 
private  note :  "  My  mother  used  to  tell  me  that 
the  bust  in  her  possession  was  by  Spurzheim, 
and  was  taken  from  a  death-mask;  but  with  re- 
gard to  Spurzheim,  she  must  have  been  in  error, 
as  he  died  before  Coleridge.  Lord  Coleridge 
says  that  the  bust  in  his  possession  is  by  Spurz- 
heim, and  was  taken  from  a  cast  of  the  poet's 
features ;  but  whether  he  falls  into  the  same 
error  as  my  mother  did,  I  cannot  say.  It  is,  of 
course,  possible  that  Spurzheim  took  a  life-cast 
from  Coleridge's  face." 

Mr.  Ernest  Coleridge  is  inclined  to  accept  the 
authenticity  of  the  mask  in  my  collection.  It 
certainly  bears  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  two 
busts  of  which  he  writes,  as  well  as  to  the  por- 
trait by  Allston,  now  in  the  National  Portrait 
Gallery  in  Loudon. 

Carl  vie  said  that  "Wordsworth's  face  bore 
marks  of  much,  not  always  peaceful,  meditation; 
the  look  of  it  not  bland  or  benevolent  so  much 
as  close,  impregnable,  and  hard."  S.  C.  Hall 
wrote  that  "  his  eyes  were  mild  and  up-looking ; 
his  mouth  coarse  rather  than  refined ;  his  fore- 
head high  rather  than  broad;"  while  Greville 
put  it  more  tersely  when  he  described  him  as 
"hard-featured,  brown,   wrinkled,   with   promi- 


WILLIAM    WORDSWORTH 


WORDSWOSTB.  103 

nent  teeth,  and  a  few  scattered  gray  hairs." 
Leigh  Hunt  said,  in  his  Autobiography:  "Cer- 
tainly I  never  beheld  eyes  that  looked  so  in- 
spired or  supernatural  [as  Wordsworth's].  Thej 
were  like  (ires  half  burning,  half  smouldering, 
with  a  sort  of  acrid  fixture  of  regard,  and  seated 
at  the  further  end  of  two  caverns.  One  might 
imagine  Ezekiel  or  Isaiah  to  have  had  such  eyes." 

Wordsworth  reminded  Ilazlitt  "  of  some  of 
Holbein's  heads — grave,  saturnine  with  a  slight 
indication  of  sly  humor,  a  peculiar  sweetness 
in  his  smile.''  Elsewhere  Ilazlitt  spoke  of  his 
"intense  high,  narrow  forehead,  Roman  nose, 
cheeks  furrowed  by  strong  purpose,  and  a  con- 
vulsive inclination  to  laughter  about  his  mouth, 
which  was  a  good  deal  at  variance  with  the  si  il- 
eum and  stately  expression  of  the  rest  of  his  face." 
And  Sir  Humphry  and  Lady  Davy,  who  were 
at  Wordsworth's  funeral,  were  both  struck  by 
the  likeness  of  his  face,  in  the  deep  repose  of 
death,  to  that  of  Dante.  The  expression,  they 
thought,  was  much  more  feminine  than  it  had 
been  in  life,  and  it  suggested  strongly  the  face 
of  his  devoted  sister,  with  whom  so  many  of  his 
years  had  been  spent. 

Haydon,  in  his  Journal,  April  13,  1815,  wrote: 
"  I  had  a  cast  made  yesterday  of  Wordsworth's 


104  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

face.  He  bore  it  like  a  philosopher.  He  sat  in 
my  dressing  -  gown  with  his  hands  folded  ;  se- 
date, solemn,  and  still."  And  then  Haydon  de- 
scribed how.  through  the  open  door,  he  exhibited 
the  unconscious  poet,  undergoing  this  unbecom- 
ing operation,  to  curious  but  disrespectful  friends 
of  them  both. 

Another  account  of  this  performance  shows 
us  "Wordsworth  flat  on  his  back  on  the  studio 
floor,  with  Charles  Lamb  dancing  about  him, 
and  making  absurd  remarks  in  order  to  force 
the  poet  to  smile,  and  so  spoil  the  mask.  All  of 
which  was  very  characteristic  of  that  "  dear  de- 
lightful," "  poor  creature  "  who  was  despised  by 
Carlyle,  and  who  was  naturally  loved  by  every- 
body else.  "What  would  we  not  give  now  for  a 
mask  of  Lamb  himself,  dead  or  alive? 

All  this  happened  when  Wordsworth  was  for- 
ty-two years  of  age,  and  thirty-five  years  before 
he  died.  Sir  Henry  Taylor  in  his  Autobiogra- 
phy, spoke,  shortly  after  the  poet's  death,  of  '"a 
cast  taken  of  a  mask  of  Wordsworth."  He  con- 
sidered it  admirable  as  a  likeness,  and  added  that 
it  was  so  regarded  by  Mrs.  Wordsworth.  He 
saw  "  a  rough  grandeur  in  it,  with  which,  if  it 
was  to  be  converted  into  marble,  posterity  might 
be  contented."     But  he  does  not  say  whether  it 


WOSDSWORTB    El  I  FS  L05 

was  a  life-mask-  or  a  death-mask,  arid  he  does 
not  refer  to  the  Haydon  mask  as  such.  in  no 
other  work,  in  no  biography  of  Wordsworth, 
and  in  no  account  of  his  last  hours,  is  any  al- 
lusion to  the  mask'  to  be  found.  The  face  here 
reproduced  is,  without  question,  that  of  Words- 
worth. It  suggests  the  Wordsworth  of  middle 
age;  it  strongly  resembles  the  portraits  painted 
by  Haydon;  it  is  much  too  young  in  form  and 
expression  for  the  senile  Wordsworth  of  the 
well-known  Fraser  Gallery;  and  there  is  little 
doubt  of  its  being  the  work  of  Haydon  alluded 
to  above.  Haydon  is  known  to  have  painted 
several  portraits  of  Wordsworth,  one  of  which 
exhibits  him  in  a  Byron  collar  and  another 
shows  him  with  eyes  rolling  in  fine  frenzy  over 
the  composition  of  a  sonnet  on  one  of  Haydon's 
own  pictures.  Haydon  also  introduced  Words- 
worth as  a  /levout  disciple  in  his  large  work 
called  "  Christ's  Entry  into  Jerusalem,"  painted 
in  L818. 

Mr.  John  Gilmer  Speed,  in  his  Memoirs  of 
Keats,  presents  an  engraving  of  "John  Keats 
from  the  Life-Mask  of  Haydon  in  1818,"  and 
pronounces  it  the  most  satisfactory  of  the  like- 
nesses of  Keats  that  he  has  seen.  In  no  other 
of  the  Lives  of  Keats  is  any  allusion  made  to 


106  PORTRAITS  IX  PLASTER 

this  mask  ;  it  is  not  mentioned  in  any  of  the  pub- 
lished letters  to  or  from  Keats,  or  in  The  Cor- 
respondence and  Table-Tolls  of  Ilcnjdon.  Joseph 
Severn,  shortly  before  he  died,  told  Mr.  Richard 
Watson  Gilder  that  he  believed  the  cast  to  have 
been  the  work  of  Ilaydon,  and  that  he  prized  it 
as  the  most  interesting,  as  it  is  the  most  real  and 
accurate,  portrait  of  his  friend  in  existence ;  and 
through  him  were  procured  the  few  copies  of  it 
in  this  country,  one  of  which  is  here  reproduced. 
Mr.  Gilder  considers  it  much  more  agreeable  than 
the  death-mask  must  have  been,  for  it  not  only 
escapes  the  haggardness  of  death,  but  there  is 
even,  so  it  seems  to  him,  a  suggestion  of  humor- 
ous patience  in  the  expression  of  the  mouth. 
"  In  this  mask,"  he  adds,  "  one  has  the  authentic 
form  and  shape — the  very  stamp  of  the  poet's 
visage."  And  he  calls  attention  to  the  fact  of 
its  remarkable  resemblance  to  more  than  one  of 
the  members  of  the  Keats  family  whom  he  has 
met. 

Charles  Cowden  Clarke,  who  does  not  seem 
to  have  been  aware  of  the  existence  of  the  mask, 
said  that  the  best  portrait  of  Keats  is  the  first 
done  by  Severn  himself,  that  which  is  engraved 
in  Hunt's  Lord  Bijron  and  his  Contemporaries. 
Lord  Houghton,  in  his  Life  of  Keats,  quoted  the 


JOHN    KEATS 


S  I  i  TS  10'J 

description  given  him  by  a  lady  (probably  Mrs. 
]!.  AV.  Procter),  who  watched  Keats  in  the  Surrey 
Institute  in  London,  listening  to  llazlitt's  course 
of  Lectures  on  the  British  Poets,in  the  winter 
of  L8 17-18.  "  His  countenance,"  she  said, "  lives 
in  my  mind  as  one  of  singular  beauty  and  bright- 
ness; it  had  an  expression  as  if  it  had  been  look- 
ing at  some  glorious  sight.  His  month  was  full 
and  less  intellectual  than  his  other  features." 
Leigh  Hunt  drew  his  portrait  more  carefully. 
"Every  feature  was  at  once  strongly  cut  and 
delicately  alive.  If  there  was  any  faulty  ex- 
pression, it  was  in  the  mouth,  which  was  not 
without  something  of  a  character  of  pugnacity. 
The  face  was  rather  long  than  otherwise;  the 
upper  lip  projected  a  little  over  the  under;  the 
chin  was  bold,  the  cheeks  sunken  ;  the  eyes  mel- 
low and  glowing,  large,  dark,  and  sensitive;  his 
hair,  of  a  brown  color,  was  line,  and  hung  in  nat- 
ural ringlets.  His  head  was  a  puzzle  for  the 
phrenologists,  being  remarkably  small  in  the 
skull,  a  singularity  which  he  had  in  common 
with  Byron  and  Shelley,  whose  hats  I  could  not 
get  on." 

Mr.  William  Sharp  quotes  a  letter  of  Joseph 
Severn,  written  a  day  or  two  after  the  death  of 
Keats,  in  which   he   said    to   Charles   Annitage 


110  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

Brown,  "  Yesterday  a  gentleman  came  to  cast 
the  face,  hand,  and  foot"  of  Keats.  And  on 
the  3d  of  April,  1821,  John  Taylor  wrote  to 
Severn  from  London  for  "  the  mask,  hand,  and 
foot."  The  later  history  of  these  interesting 
casts  I  have  never  heen  able  to  learn. 

The  original  cast  of  the  life-mask  of  Keats, 
made  in  Haydon's  studio,  and  very  much  finer 
than  any  of  the  replicas  of  it,  is  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  National  Portrait  Gallery  in  Lon- 
don. It  was  given  by  Keats  himself  to  his  in- 
timate friend  John  Hamilton  Reynolds,  just 
before  Keats  went  abroad  to  die.  Keynolds 
bequeathed  it  to  his  sister,  Miss  Charlotte  Rey- 
nolds, by  whom  it  was  presented,  with  a  clear 
pedigree,  to  the  trustees  of  the  National  Portrait 
Gallery.  This  cast,  with  the  mask  of  Cromwell, 
and  a  copy  of  the  mask  of  Dr.  Johnson,  are, 
curiously  enough,  the  only  life-masks  or  death- 
masks  in  the  institution  in  cpiestion. 

The  printed  portraits  of  Johnson  are  very 
many.  He  himself  said,  once,  of  the  painting  by 
Trotter,  "  "Well,  thou  art  an  ugly  fellow  ;  but  still, 
I  believe  thou  art  like  the  original."  George 
Kearsley  Avrote  that  "  bis  face  was  capable  of 
great  expression,  both  in  respect  to  intelligence 
and  mildness,  as  all  those  can  witness  who  have 


SAMUEL    JOHNSON 


JOENSOit  113 

seen  him  in  the  flow  of  conversation,  or  under 
the  influence  of  gratefu]  feelings;"  and  Bishop 
Percy  wrote.  "Johnson's  countenance,  when  in 
good  humor,  was  not  disagreeable.  His  face 
clear,  his  complexion  good,  and  his  features  not 
ill-formed;  many  ladies  have  thought  lie  might 
not  have  been  unattractive  when  young." 

The  original  of  the  mask  of  Johnson  belongs 
to  the  Royal  Literary  Fund,  the  secretary  of 
which,  Mr.  A.  Llewellyn  Roberts,  in  giving  his 
consent  to  the  reproduction  of  it  here,  writes  as 
follows  concerning  it :  "  It  was  taken  from  a 
cast  after  death,  under  the  direction  of  Dr. 
Johnson's  medical  attendant,  Mr.  Cruikshahks, 
who  informed  his  daughter,  into  whose  posses- 
sion it  came,  that  it  was  a  remarkably  correct 
likeness.  Unfortunately  there  is  no  record  of 
the  artist's  name,  but  it  is  alleged  that  each 
member  of  Dr.  Johnson's  family  had  a  copy.'" 
This  particular  copy  was  given  to  the  Royal 
Literary  Fund  by  William  Hutchins,  who  lived 
in  Hanover  Square.  There  is  no  reference  to 
the  taking  of  the  mask  of  Johnson  to  be  found 
in  any  of  the  editions  of  Boswell's  Life  of  the 
great  lexicographer. 

Keats  and  Ilaydon  first  met  in  the  house  of 
Leigh    Hunt    in    November,    L816,  and  to  their 


114  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

mutual  delight.  They  became  very  intimate 
upon  very  short  acquaintance,  and  the  poet  was 
constantly  to  be  found  in  the  studio  of  the  paint- 
er ;  they  vowed  that  they  were  dearer  to  each 
other  than  brothers,  and  they  prayed  that  their 
hearts  might  be  buried  together.  Naturally  a 
friendship  so  enthusiastic  in  its  beginning  did 
not  last  very  long,  and  Haydon  seems  to  have 
been  most  unjust  in  his  reflections  upon  Keats, 
written  some  time  after  Keats' s  heart  had  been 
buried  in  Kome — and  alone !  Haydon  wrote  in 
the  first  flush  of  his  intimacy  with  Keats: 
"  Never  have  I  had  such  irresistible  and  perpet- 
ual urointrs  of  future  greatness.  I  have  been 
like  a  man  with  air-balloons  under  his  arm-pits 
and  ether  in  his  soul;  while  I  was  painting, 
walking,  or  thinking,  beaming  flashes  of  energy 
followed  and  impressed  me — they  came  over  me, 
and  shot  across  me,  and  shook  me,  till  I  lifted 
up  my  heart  and  thanked  God." 

This  is  Haydon  upon  himself.  Macaulay 
looked  at  him  in  a  different  light.  "  Haydon,-' 
— he  wrote  in  his  Diary  in  1853— "  Haydon  was 
exactly  the  vulgar  idea  of  a  man  of  genius.  He 
had  all  of  the  morbid  peculiarities  which  are 
supposed  by  fools  to  belong  to  intellectual  supe- 
rioritv  —  eccentricity,  jealousy,    caprice,  indefi- 


BENJAMIN    ROBERT    HAYDON 


HA  TDON-  i;i:mii\m  117 

nite  disdain  for  other  men;  and  yet  he  was  as 
poor,  commonplace  a  creature  as  any  in  the 
world.  He  painted  signs,  and  gave  himself 
more  airs  than  if  lie  had  painted  the  Cartoons. 
Whether  you  struck  him  or  stroked  him,  starved 
him  or  fed  him,  he  snapped  at  your  hand  in  just 
the  same  way  !" 

In  the  M<  mow  of  Ilaydon  by  his  son  is  a  fine 
engraving  of  the  death-mask  of  Ilaydon,  a  rep- 
lica of  which  is  in  my  collection.  This  mask, 
with  that  of  Jeremy  Bentham,  was  broken,  as 
\ on  here  see  them,  by  careless  Custom-house  offi- 
cers on  their  arrival  in  New  York  a  few  years  ago. 

.1  a mes  Parton  quoted  Burr  as  say  i ng  of  .1  eremy 
Bentham,  "  It  is  impossible  to  conceive  a  physiog- 
nomy more  strongly  marked  with  ingenuousness 
anil  philanthropy."  John  Stuart  Mill  said  of  him 
that  "he  was  a  boy  till  the  last."  And  at  the 
age  of  eighty -two  he  himself  wrote  to  an  old 
friend:  "I  am  alive,  though  turned  of  eighty; 
still  in  good  health  and  spirits ;  codifying  like  a 
dragon."  "  Candor  in  the  countenance,  mildness 
in  the  looks,  serenity  upon  the  brow,  calmness 
in  the  language,  coolness  in  the  movements,  im- 
perturbability united  with  the  keenest  feeling:" 
such,  according  to  Brissot  de  Warville,  were  the 
characteristics  of  Bentham. 


118  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

Since  St.  Denis  of  France  used  to  walk  about 
with  his  head  under  his  arm,  or  used  to  sit  about 
with  his  head  in  his  lap,  in  the  third  century  of 
our  Christian  era,  no  post-mortem  performance  is 
more  grotesque  than  that  of  Jeremy  Bentham, 
who  left  his  body  by  will  to  Dr.  Southwood 
Smith.  The  legatee  was  instructed  to  dissect  it, 
and  to  deliver  lectures  upon  it  to  his  medical 
students  and  to  the  public  generally.  After 
these  anatomical  demonstrations  a  skeleton  was 
to  be  made,  and  was  made,  of  the  bones.  Dr. 
Smith  "  endeavored  to  preserve  the  head  un- 
touched"—  the  words  are  his  own — "merely 
drawing  away  the  fluids  by  placing  it  under  an 
air-pump  over  sulphuric  acid.  By  this  means  the 
head  was  rendered  as  hard  as  the  skulls  of  the 
New-Zealanders,  but  all  expression,  of  course, 
was  gone.  Seeing  this  would  not  do  for  exhi- 
bition, I  had  a  mould  made  in  wax  by  a  distin- 
guished French  artist,  taken  from  David's  bust, 
Pickersgill"s  picture,  and  my  own  ring.  The 
artist  succeeded  in  producing  one  of  the  most 
admirable  likenesses  ever  seen.  I  then  had  the 
skeleton  stuffed  out  to  fit  Bentham's  own  clothes, 
and  this  was  likewise  fitted  to  the  trunk.  The 
figure  was  placed  seated  on  the  chair  in  which 
he  usually  sat,  one  hand  holding  the  walking- 


JEREMY     HENTHAM 


Hi:  Mil  A  1/  r;i 

stick  which  was  his  constant  companion  when  he 
went  out,  called  by  him  'Dapple.'  The  whole 
was  enclosed  in  a  mahogany  case  with  glass 
doors."  Bentham  was  wont  to  amuse  himself  in 
his  boyish  old  age  with  the  vision  of  his  presid 
ing,  as  it  were,  in  proper  person  at  meetings  of 
his  disciples,  and  he  even  used  to  anticipate  his 
being  wheeled  to  the  top  of  the  table  on  festive 
occasions ! 

His  figure  as  here  described  is  still  to  be  seen 
in  the  rooms  of  University  College,  Gower  Street, 
London.  It  is  curious  that  Dr.  Smith  did  not  go  to 
the  mask  for  a  representation  of  Bentham's  actual 
face.  That  such  a  mask  was  made,  George  Combe 
testified  in  the  columns  of  the  London  Plu-'ii- 
ologioal  Journal  a  few  years  after  Bentham's 
death.  He  said  that  it  was  in  his  own  possession, 
aud  showed  that  "the  knowing  organ  was  large 
and  the  reflective  organs  only  full."  The  mask, 
he  said,  was  very  like  the  portrait  of  Bentham 
reproduced  in  Tait's  edition  of  Bentham's  works. 
But  he  does  not  say  whether  it  was  a  death-mask 
or  the  life-mask  known  to  have  been  made  by 
Turnerelli,  an  Italian  sculptor  living  in  London, 
in  the  early  part  of  this  century,  and  when  Ben- 
tham was  not  more  than  fifty  years  of  age.  lie 
was  eighty-five  when  he  died.    This  plaster  mask 


123  PORTRAITS  IN  PIASTER 

of  Bentham  has  been  compared  carefully  with  the 
wax  effigy  in  University  College.  The  mouth, 
the  cranial  arch,  the  entire  upper  part  of  the 
face,  and  the  general  shape  of  the  head  are  very 
like,  although  in  the  wax  mask  the  chin  is  shorter 
and  rounder,  and  the  eyes,  of  course,  are  open. 

The  mask  of  Rossetti  was  made  by  Brucciani, 
after  death.  Only  three  or  four  copies  were 
cast,  and  the  mould  is  in  the  possession  of  Mr. 
William  M.  Rossetti,  through  whose  courtesy  I 
am  able  to  reproduce  it  here,  and  who  writes : 
"  I  should  say  that  my  family  and  myself  do  not 
at  all  like  the  version  of  my  brother's  face  pre- 
sented by  the  mould  and  cast.  In  especial,  sin- 
gular though  it  may  sound,  the  dimensions  of 
the  forehead  seem  wofully  narrowed  and  belied. 
But  of  course,  from  a  certain  point  of  view,  the 
cast  tells  truth  of  its  own  kind." 

Mr.  Hall  Caine,  writing  of  his  own  copy  of 
the  mask,  says :  "  I  ought  perhaps  to  add  that 
it  does  not  give  a  good  impression  of  Dante 
Rossetti.  The  upper  part  of  the  head  is  very 
noble,  but  the  lower  part  is  somewhat  repellaut." 

A  fourth  copy  belongs  to  Mr.  George  F.  Watts, 
the  painter,  whose  portrait  of  Rossetti  is  so  well 
known. 

An  anonymous  writer  in  Blackwood's  Maga- 


DANTK    GADUIKL    ROSSKTTI 


nossi  vn  -ca  i  ouh  125 

.:///.  fur  January,  L893,  who  seems  to  have  known 
Rossetti  intimately,  thus  describes  the  head  and 
front  of  the  poet:  "He  was  short,  squat,  bull- 
doggish  ;  he  belonged  to  the  Cavour  type,  but 
the  sallow  face  was  massive  and  powerful.  The 
impression  of  solidity  is  somewhat  toned  down 
in  Watts's  portrait,  and  the  face  is  thinner  and 
more  worn  than  when  I  knew  him.  Sleepless 
nights  and  protracted  pain  may  have  changed 
him  in  later  years  and  made  the  ideal  Rossetti 
more  manifest.  Except  for  the  meditative,  tran- 
quil eye  (one  thought  of  the  ox-eyed  Janus),  there 
was  nothing  ideal  about  him.  lie  was  intensely 
Italian,  indeed,  hut  it  was  the  sleek  and  well-fed 
citizen  of  Milan  or  Genoa  that  he  recalled,  not 
the  slim  and  romantic  hero  of  Verdi  or  Doni- 
zetti." 

(avour,  according  to  George  Eliot,  who  once 
got  a  glimpse  of  him  in  an  Italian  railway  sta- 
tion, was  a  man  pleasant  to  look  upon,  with  a 
smile  half  kind  and  half  caustic.  He  gave  her 
the  impression  that  "he  thought  of  many  mat- 
ters, but  thanked  Heaven  and  made  no  boast  of 
them."  Elsewhere  she  said  :  "  The  pleasantest 
sight  was  Count  Cavour  in  plainest  dress,  with  a 
head  full  of  power,  mingled  with  bonhomie." 

Mr.  O.  M.  Spencer,  in  Harper's  Magazine  for 


126  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

August,  1871,  devotes  much  space  to  the  person- 
al appearance  of  Cavour,  who  was,  according  to 
this  authority,  "  of  medium  stature,  with  a  ten- 
dency to  corpulency;  quick  and  energetic  in  his 
movements,  with  a  forehead  broad,  high,  and 
spacious;  his  eyes  were  partially  closed  by  weak- 
ness and  still  further  concealed  by  spectacles; 
his  mouth  not  well  formed  and  somewhat  volup- 
tuous, over  which  played  an  ironical  smile,  the 
joint  offspring  of  mirth  and  disdain.  Neverthe- 
less, the  tout  i  us,  mill,  of  his  countenance  was 
expressive  of  benignity.  Simple  in  his  manners, 
though  dignified  in  his  bearing,  he  would  have 
been  recognized  anywhere  as  a  sub-alpine  coun- 
try gentleman,  familiar  with  the  usages  of  the 
court.  Though  of  an  irascible,  phosphoric  tem- 
perament, he  rarely  or  never  lost  his  self-control. 
Generous  in  his  enmities  and  liberal  in  his 
friendships,  he  was  chary  of  his  confidence  and 
exclusive  in  his  intimacies.  It  may  be  that  he 
was  devoid  of  faith  and  affection,  but  he  certain- 
ly loved  Italy,  and  believed  in  his  own  mission." 
The  death  -  mask  of  Cavour,  and  that  of  Pius 
IX.,  I  found  lying  peacefully  side  by  side  in  a 
little  plaster -shop  in  Rome  in  the  autumn  of 
1893.  The  Pope  was  assuredly  not  devoid  of 
faith  and  affection ;  and  if  he  loved  Italy  less,  it 


COUNT    CA1  OUB 


PIUS   IX.  181 

was  only  because  lie  loved  the  Church  of  Rome 
more. 

Pius  IX.,  we  were  told,  at  the  time  of  his  death 
in  1.878,  was  a  hale  and  vigorous  septuagenarian, 
witli  a  line  presence,  a  rich  and  melodious  voice, 
a  facile  utterance,  which  ruse  at  times  to  elo- 
quence, and  a  benign  countenance.  For  three 
days  the  body  of  the  Pope  lay  in  state  in  the 
Chapel  of  the  Holy  Sacrament  in  St.  Peter's, 
and  an  eye-witness  of  the  ceremonies  wrote: 
"  The  face,  perfectly  visible,  seemed  unchanged 
from  what  it  had  been  in  life,  and  the  expression 
was  one  of  absolute  peace ;  the  calmness,  indeed, 
was  almost  like  that  of  sleep.  A  slight  flush, 
even,  was  on  the  cheek,  and  a  smile  seemed  to 
hover  about  the  lips.  The  white  hair  peeped 
from  under  the  mitre,  and  in  the  crossed  hands, 
covered  with  red  gloves,  lay  a  crucifix  suspended 
from  a  chain  about  his  neck." 

Signor  A.  Gallenza,  in  a  volume  entitled  Tin- 
Pqpt  and  //<<  King,  spoke  of  the  pontiff's  face 
in  death  as  "handsome  and  dignified,  with  some- 
thing like  sternness  in  the  lofty  brow,  strangely 
contrasting  with  that  set  smile  so  winning  in  the 
living  man  himself,  but  which  was  merely  the 
result  of  a  muscular  contraction,  a  dimple  which 
even  death  could  not  smooth." 


132  POKTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

Henry  Crabb  Robinson  wrote  from  Italy  in 
1S31 :  "  I  occasionally  saw  Leopardi,  the  poet,  a 
man  of  acknowledged  genius  and  of  unimpeach- 
able character.  He  was  a  man  of  good  family 
and  a  scholar,  but  he  had  a  feeble  frame,  Avas 
sickly  and  deformed." 

Leopardi's  life  was  very  unhappy.  His  bodily 
infirmities  humiliated  him,  and  domestic  trials 
greatly  affected  his  spirit.  He  seems  to  have  in- 
spired very  little  tenderness  even  in  the  heart  of 
his  own  mother,  and  he  died  as  miserably  as  he 
lived,  longing  for  the  eternal  rest  from  pain  and 
neglect.  His  contemporaries  have  left  almost 
nothing  on  record  concerning  his  personal  ap- 
pearance, but  the  few  existing  portraits  of  him, 
and  particularly  this  cast  of  his  dead  face,  cer- 
tainly show  sweetness  mingled  with  strength. 
Mr.  Howells,  in  his  Modt  rn  Italian  Poets,  quotes 
Niebuhr  as  saying  of  the  young  Leopardi :  "  Con- 
ceive of  my  astonishment,  when  I  saw  standing 
before  me,  in  the  poor  little  chamber,  a  mere 
youth,  pale  and  shy,  frail  in  person  and  obviously 
in  ill-health,  who  was  by  far  the  first,  in  fact  the 
only,  Greek  philologist  in  Italy." 

The  best  and  most  sympathetic  portrait  of 
John  Boyle  O'Reilly  is  the  following,  to  be 
found  in  the  life  of  that  gentleman  written  by 


GIACOMO    LEOPARDI 


JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY 


O'REILLY  137 

his  friend,  Mr.  James  Jeffrey  Roche :  "  Recalling 
him  as  he  then  was  [1870],  the  abiding  memory 
of  him  is  that  of  his  marvellously  sweet  smile, 
and  his  strikingly  clear  and  frank  gaze ;  the  beau- 
ty of  his  face  lay  chiefly  in  his  eyes.  The  offi- 
cial advertisement  of  his  escape  says  that  those 
eyes  were  brown,  and  prison  descriptions  are 
generally  more  accurate  than  flattering.  Almost 
anybody  looking  at  him  less  closely,  would  have 
said  that  his  eyes  were  black.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  they  were  hazel,  but  his  dark  skin  and  jet- 
black  eyebrows  and  hair  gave  an  impression  of 
blackness  to  the  large,  well-formed  eyes  beneath. 
They  were  very  expressive,  whether  flashing 
with  some  sudden  fancy  or  glowing  with  a 
deeper  burning  thought,  or  sparkling  with  pure 
boyish  fun.  There  was  another  expression, 
which  they  sometimes  wore  at  this  period  of  his 
life,  and  which  may  be  described  for  lack  of  a 
better  word,  as  a  hunted  look — not  frightened  or 
furtive,  but  an  alert,  watchful  expression,  which 
made  it  easy  to  understand  how  he  could  have  de- 
liberately armed  himself  with  the  firm  intention 

of  surrendering  his  liberty  only  with  his  life 

No  portrait  ever  made  of  him  does  justice  to 
that  which  was  the  great  charm  of  his  counte- 
nance—  its  wonderful  light  and  life.     His  eyes 


138  P0MTSA1TS  IN  PLASTER 

had  the  depth  and  fire  and  mobile  color  of  glow- 
ing carbuncle.  For  the  rest  he  had  the  rich 
brown  complexion,  so  familiar  in  after-years;  a 
small  black  mustache,  only  half  concealing  his 
finely-cut  mouth,  and  revealing  a  set  of  perfectly 
white,  regular  teeth.  His  form  was  slight,  but 
erect  and  soldier-like.  He  carried  his  head  well 
raised,  and  a  little  thrown  back.  He  was  a  man 
whom  no  one  would  pass  without  a  second 
glance." 

It  is  rather  a  curious  fact  that  the  men  most 
interested,  naturally,  in  the  study  of  the  human 
face,  and  in  its  portrayal  with  chisel  or  pencil, 
are  the  men  most  poorly  represented  in  this  col- 
lection ;  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence  being  the  only 
painter  of  portraits,  and  Hiram  Powers,  Haydon, 
and  Canova  the  only  makers  of  masks,  whose 
masks  are  here  presented.  Three  views  of  the 
life -mask  of  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence  were  en- 
graved by  I  J.  J.  Lane,  in  1830.  They  are  con- 
tained on  one  plate,  and  represent  the  full  face, 
as  well  as  profiles  looking  to  the  right  and  to  the 
left.  The  print  is  very  rare,  and  bears  the  follow- 
ing inscription :  "  From  a  plaster  cast  taken  at 
the  age  of  thirty-four,  in  the  possession  of  an  at- 
tached friend." 

Edward  II.  Baily,  the  sculptor,  is  known  to 


SIR    THOMAS    LAWRENCE 


LA  WHENCE  141 

have  made  a  cast  of  Lawrence's  features  after 
death.     "The  head  was  finely  shaped  and  bald, 

and  it  bore  a  striking  resemblance  to  that  of 
Canning,  although  the  face  lacked  something 
of  Canning's  elevated  expression."  This  death- 
mask  is  here  presented. 

Lawrence  is  said  to  have  been  a  beautiful  creat- 
ure in  his  boyhood,  with  bright  eyes,  and  long 
chestnut  hair.  In  later  life  we  are  told  that 
"although  not  tall — he  was  under  five  feet  nine 
inches — his  beautiful  face,  active  figure,  agree- 
able manners,  and  fine  voice  were  not  thrown 
away  upon  either  lords  or  ladies,  emperors  or 
kings."  Opie  said  of  him  once,  "Lawrence  made 
coxcombs  of  his  sitters,  and  his  sitters  made  a 
coxcomb  of  him."  And  George  IV.,  the  Sir 
Hubert  Stanley  of  fine  manners,  pronounced  him 
"a  high-bred  gentleman."  This  is  praise  indeed! 
Another,  and  perhaps  not  so  exalted  an  authori- 
ty, said,  "  Lawrence's  appearance  was  exceeding- 
ly graceful  and  gentlemanly.  His  countenance 
was  open  and  noble,  his  eyes  were  large  and  lus- 
trous and  very  expressive."  Dr.  It.  R.  Madden, 
in  his  Memoirs  of  the  Ooxmtess  of  Blessmgton, 
quotes  a  brother  artist,  and  a  friend  of  Law- 
rence, as  saying  of  him,  "  As  a  man  Sir  Thomas 
Lawrence  was  amiable,  kind,  generous,  and  for- 


142  PORTRAITS  JN  PLASTER 

giving.  His  manner  was  elegant  but  not  high- 
bred. He  had  too  much  the  air  of  always  submit- 
ting. He  had  smiled  so  often,  and  so  long,  that 
at  last  his  smile  had  the  appearance  of  being  set 
in  enamel." 

The  mask  of  J.  M. W.  Turner  formerly  belonged 
to  the  late  Dr.  Pocock  of  Brighton,  England,  and 
is  now  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  William  Ward,  of 
London.  It  was  made,  after  death,  by  the  late 
Thomas  Woolner.  There  are  but  few  portraits 
of  Turner  in  existence,  the  most  life-like  being  an 
engraving  by  M.  M.  Halloway,  of  a  half-length 
profile  sketch  bearing  this  inscription  :  "  Drawn 
by  me  in  the  print-room  of  the  British  Museum. 
J.  T.  Smith."  Unfortunately  no  date  is  at- 
tached. 

Much  has  been  put  on  record  about  Turner's 
personal  peculiarities  and  eccentricities;  but  lit- 
tle has  been  said  by  his  contemporaries  concern- 
ing his  personal  appearance.  The  best  picture, 
although  a  slight  one,  is  from  the  pen  of  Mr. 
W.  P.  Frith :  "  Turner  was  a  very  short  man, 
with  a  large  head,  and  a  face  usually  much  muf- 
fled to  protect  it  from  the  draughts  for  which 
the  rooms  [of  the  Royal  Academy]  were  cele- 
brated." 

Cyrus  Bedding,  in  his  Past  Celebrities,  speaks 


J.  M.  W.  TDRNKB 


TURNER  145 

of  Turner's  ''unprepossessing-  exterior,  his  re- 
serve,and  his  austerity  of  language."  AVilkie  Col- 
lins once  described  him  as  seated  on  the  top  of  a 
flight  of  steps,  astride  of  a  box,  on  Varnishing 
Day  at  the  Royal  Academy,  "a  shabby  Bacchus, 
nodding  like  a  mandarin  at  his  picture,  which  he 
with  a  pendulum-motion  now  touched  with  his 
brush,  now  receded  from."  And  Peter  Cun- 
ningham, in  an  almost  brutal  way,  set  down 
Turner  as  "  short,  stout,  and  bandy-legged,  with 
a  red,  pimply  face,  imperious  and  covetous  eyes, 
and  a  tongue  which  expressed  his  sentiments 
with  murmuring  reluctance."  Sir  William  Allen, 
according  to  Cunningham,  was  accustomed  to 
describe  the  great  painter  as  a  "Dutch  Skip- 
per." 

In  view  of  all  this,  it  is  not  remarkable  that 
Turner  had  strong  objections  to  sitting  for  his 
portrait.  He  felt  that  any  familiarity  with  his 
face  and  figure  would  affect  the  poetry  of  his 
works  in  the  popular  mind.  "  No  one,"  he  said, 
"  would  believe,  after  seeing  my  likeness,  that  I 
painted  these  pictures."  A  contemporary  por- 
trait of  Turner,  fishing  in  all  his  uncouth  enthu- 
siasm, with  shabby  garments,  and  a  cotton  um- 
brella over  his  head,  is  unfortunately  too  long 
to  be  quoted  here. 


140  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

Hiram  Powers  died  in  Florence  in  1873,  and 
lies  in  the  Protestant  Cemetery  of  that  city.  His 
mask,  after  death,  was  made  by  Thomas  Ball  and 
Joel  T.  Hart.  Dr.  Samuel  Osgood  said  of  Powers 
in  1 870  :  "  In  his  looks,  his  ideas,  as  well  as  in  all 
his  works,  he  is  a  man  of  the  golden  mean. 
There  is  nothing  too  much  in  his  make  or  his 
manner.  He  is  a  good  specimen  of  a  well- 
formed  man,  and  his  own  statue  would  make  a 
good  sign  for  the  front  of  his  studio."  In  Octo- 
ber, 1847,  Mrs.  Browning  wrote:  "Mr.  Powers, 
the  sculptor,  is  our  chief  friend  and  favorite.  A 
most  charming,  simple,  straightforward,  genial 
American  —  as  simple  as  the  man  of  genius  he 
has  proved  himself  to  be.  .  .  .  The  sculptor  has 
eyes  like  a  wild  Indian's,  so  black  and  full  of 
light — you  would  scarcely  marvel  if  they  clove 
the  marble  without  the  help  of  his  hand."  "  Mr. 
Powers  called  in  the  evening,"  wrote  Hawthorne 
in  his  Italian  Note-hook  in  1858 — "a  plain  per- 
sonage, characterized  by  strong  simplicity  and 
warm  kindliness,  with  an  impending  brow,  and 
large  eyes  which  kindle  as  he  speaks.  He  is 
gray  and  slightly  bald,  but  does  not  seem  elder- 
ly nor  past  his  prime.  I  accept  him  at  once  as 
an  honest  and  trustworthy  man,  and  shall  not 
vary  from  this  judgment," 


HIRAM    POWKRS 


AGASSIZ  149 

Mr.  Preston  Powers,  who  possesses  the  mask 
of  his  father,  lias  also  in  his  possession  a  life- 
mask  and  a  death-mask  of  Agassiz,  and  a  death- 
mask  of  Sumner;  the  last  two  having  been  made 
by  himself.  Through  his  courtesy  I  am  enabled 
to  reproduce  them  all  here. 

The  life-mask  of  Agassiz  was  made  when  the 
subject  was  about  forty  years  of  age,  and  by  an 
artist  now  unknown.  It  was  given  to  Mr.  Powers 
bv  Mr.  Alexander  Agassiz  at  the  time  of  the 
elder  Agassiz's  death. 

E.  P.  Whipple,  in  his  /,'.  colli  ctions  of  Emi/ru  nt 
M  a,  said  of  Agassi/.:  "You  could  not  look  at 
him  without  feeling  that  you  were  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  magnificent  specimen  of  physical, 
mental,  and  moral  manhood ;  that  in  him  was 
realized  Sainte-Beuve's  ideal  of  a  scientist — the 
soul  of  a  sage  in  the  body  of  an  athlete.  At 
that  time  [1845]  he  was  one  of  the  comeliest  of 
men.  His  full  and  ruddy  face,  glowing  with 
health  and  animation,  was  crowned  by  a  brow 
which  seemed  to  be  the  fit  home  for  such  a  com- 
prehensive intelligence."  And  Longfellow,  in  his 
Journal  (January  9,  1847),  wrote  :  "In  the  even- 
ing a  reunion  at  Felton's  to  meet  Mr.  Agassiz, 
the  Swiss  geologist  and  naturalist.  A  pleasant, 
voluble  man,  with  a  bright  beaming  face." 


150  POUTS  AITS  IN  PLASTER 

Mr.  Curtis,  in  an  oration  upon  Charles  Sum- 
ner, delivered  shortly  after  the  statesman's  death, 
said  that  "his  look,  his  walk,  his  dress,  his  man- 
ner, were  not  those  of  the  busy  advocate,  even 
in  his  younger  years,  but  of  the  cultivated  and 
brilliant  man  of  society,  the  Admirable  Crick- 
ton  of  the  saloons." 

Mrs.  Jefferson  Davis,  in  her  Life  of  her  hus- 
band, spoke  of  Sumner  as  "  a  handsome,  unpleas- 
ing  man,  and  an  athlete  whose  physique  pro- 
claimed his  physical  strength."  And  Mr.  Seward 
wrote  to  his  wife  in  1S56 :  "  Sumner  is  much 
changed  for  the  worse.  His  elasticity  and  vigor 
are  gone.  He  walks,  and  in  every  way  moves, 
like  a  man  who  has  not  altogether  recovered 
from  a  paralysis,  or  like  a  man  whose  sight  is 
dimmed,  and  his  limbs  stiffened  with  age." 

At  the  autopsy  it  was  discovered  that  the 
brain  of  Sumner  showed  no  trace  of  the  assault 
from  the  effects  of  which  he  suffered  so  terribly. 

Canova  must  have  been  a  beautiful  character. 
It  is  not  often  that  so  much  good  is  spoken,  even 
of  the  dead,  as  has  been  spoken  of  him  since  he 
died  ;  and  if  the  chroniclers  are  right,  he  de- 
served it  all.  In  personal  appearance,  however, 
we  read  that  he  was  not  particularly  attractive. 
His  hair  was  black  and  luxuriant,  and  his  fore- 


LOUIS    AGASSIZ From  Life 


I.OUIS   AGASS1Z — From  DMttb 


CHARLES    SUMNER 


CANOVA  157 

head  of  noble  dimensions,  but  the  outline  of  Ins 
features  was  neither  grand  nor  extraordinary. 
The  phrenologists  gave  him  a  massive  brain  up- 
ward and  forward  of  the  ears,  wonderful  con- 
structive talent,  with  large  ideality  and  strong 
intellect.  He  was  very  abstemious  in  his  hab- 
its, very  thoughtful,  and  a  hard  worker.  Count 
Cicognara,  in  a  biographical  sketch  of  Canova, 
thus  described  his  face  during  his  very  last  hours : 
"  His  visage  became,  and  remained  for  some 
time,  highly  radiant  and  expressive,  as  if  his 
mind  was  absorbed  in  some  sublime  conception, 
creating  powerful  and  unusual  emotion  in  all 
around  him.  Thus  he  must  have  looked  when 
imagining  that  venerable  figure  of  the  pontiff 
who  is  represented  in  the  attitude  of  prayer  m 
the  Vatican.  His  death  was  wholly  unattend- 
ed by  the  agonies  which  make  a  death-bed  so 
distressing,  nor  did  even  a  sigh  or  convulsion 
announce  his  dying  moment." 

This  is  the  visage  which  his  friends  cast  in  plas- 
ter, and  it  was,  no  doubt,  the  basis  of  the  medall- 
ion bust  of  Canova,  in  profile,  which  forms  part 
of  the  pyramidal  tomb  erected  by  certain  of  Ins 
pupils  in  1S27,  in  the  church  of  Sante  Maria 
Gloriosa  dei  Frari,  the  pantheon  of  Venice.  The 
monument,  according  to  Mr.  Ituskin,  is   "  con- 


158  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

suramate  in  science,  intolerable  in  affectation, 
ridiculous  in  conception ;  null  and  void  to  the 
uttermost  in  invention  and  feeling;"  and  the 
medallion  represents  the  great  sculptor  in  all  his 
glorious  prime  of  strength  and  beauty. 

The  death-mask  of  Canova,  as  here  repro- 
duced, in  its  peaceful  and  quiet  repose,  is  in 
strong  contrast  with  that  of  Eichard  Brinsley 
Sheridan,  shown  upon  a  subsequent  page. 

In  the  whole  history  of  English  letters,  there 
can  be  found  no  sadder  chapter  than  that  which 
contains  the  story  of  Sheridan's  death.  The 
body  out  of  which  the  breath  was  fast  going, 
and  from  which  intelligent  action  had  entirely 
gone,  was  seized  by  sheriff's  officers  for  debt, 
and  only  by  the  threats  of  attending  physicians 
did  it  escape  being  carried  to  a  low  sponging- 
house,  wrapped  in  nothing  but  the  blankets  that 
covered  the  bed  on  which  it  lay.  The  "  life  and 
succor"  his  friends  had  begged  were  denied  him, 
and  "  Westminster  Abbey  and  a  funeral"  were 
all  he  received.  As  a  French  journal  said  at 
the  time,  it  only  proved  that  "  France  is  the 
place  for  a  man  of  letters  to  live  in,  and  Eng- 
land the  place  for  him  to  die  in."  Sheridan's 
appearance  during  his  last  hours  was  thus  de- 
picted by  one  who  saw  for  himself  the  havoc 


ANTONIO    CANOVA 


RICHARD    URINSI.F.Y   SHERIDAN 


SHERIDAN  168 

mack':  "His  countenance  was  distorted  under 
the  writhings  of  unutterable  anguish.  Pain 
and  the  effects  of  pain  were  visible  on  that 
sunken  check;  and  on  that,  brow  which  had 
never  knitted  under  oppression,  or  frowned  upon 
the  importunities  of  the  unfortunate,  pain  in  its 
most  acute  form  had  contracted  there  its  harsh 
and  fori  lidding  lines.  .  .  .  Still,  amid  those  rigid 
lines  which  continuous  suffering  had  indented 
there,  you  might  perceive  the  softer  ami  more 
harmonious  tracings  of  uncomplaining  patience, 
fortitude  in  its  endurance,  and  resignation  in 
its  calmness."  This  is  the  face  exhibited  here — 
one  of  the  most  unpleasant  to  look  upon  which 
the  collection  contains,  notwithstanding  Sheri- 
dan's own  boast,  not  very  long  before  his  death, 
that  "his  eyes  would  look  up  as  brightly  at  his 
coffin-lid  as  ever."  I  lis  spirits  did  not  fail  him 
so  long  as  consciousness  remained,  and  when 
asked  by  the  attending  surgeons  if  he  had  ever 
before  undergone  an  operation, he  replied,  "Only 
when  sitting  for  my  portrait,  or  having  my  hair 
cut."  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  this  last  por- 
trait for  which  he  sat.  should  be  so  worn  ami 
weary  in  its  expression.  Moore,  in  his  Life  of 
Sheridan,  did  not  mention  the  taking  of  the 
mask,  although  he  spoke  of  the  plaster  cast  of 


164  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

Sheridan's  hand,  under   which  some  keen   ob- 
server had  written : 

"  Good  at  a  fight,  better  at  a  play, 
God-like  ill  giving — but  the  devil  to  pay." 

Concerning  Moore's  own  appearance,  Leigh 
Hunt  wrote :  "  Moore's  forehead  was  bony  and 
full  of  character,  with  '  bumps '  of  wit  large  and 
radiant  enough  to  transport  a  phrenologist.  His 
eyes  were  as  dark  and  fine  as  you  would  wish 
to  see  under  a  set  of  vine  leaves ;  his  mouth 
generous,  and  good  -  humored  with  dimples." 
Scott  said  in  his  Journal,  in  1S25:  "Moore's 
countenance  is  plain,  but  the  expression  is  very 
animated,  especially  in  speaking  or  singing,  so 
that  it  is  far  more  interesting  than  the  finest 
features  could  have  rendered  it."  In  1833 
Gerald  Griffin  made  a  visit  to  Moore  at  Sloper- 
ton,  and  thus  described  Moore  himself  :  "A  little 
man,  but  full  of  spirits,  with  eyes,  hands,  feet, 
and  frame  forever  in  motion.  ...  I  am  no  great 
observer  of  proportions,  but  he  seemed  to  me 
to  be  a  neat-made  little  fellow,  tidily  buttoned 
up,  young  as  fifteen  at  heart,  though  with  hair 
that  reminded  me  of  %  Alps  in  the  sunset';  not 
handsome,  perhaps,  but  something  in  the  whole 
cut  of  him  that  pleased  me." 


THOMAS   MOOKE 


MOORE  n,; 

A  year  later.  X.  1\  AVillis,  who  «•"••-•  a  greal 
observer  of  proportions,  met  Moore  at  Lad} 
Blessington's,  and  thus  recorded  his  observa 
tions:  "His  forehead  is  wrinkled,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  a  most  prominent  development  of 
the  organ  of  gayety,  which,  singularly  enough, 
shines  with  the  lustre  and  smooth  polish  of  a 
pearl,  and  is  surrounded  by  a  semicircle  of  lines 
drawn  close  about  it  like  intrenchments  against 
Time.  His  eyes  still  sparkle  like  a  champagne 
bubble,  though  the  invader  has  drawn  his  pen 
cilliim-s  about  the  corners.  .  .  .  His  mouth  is 
the  most  characteristic  feature  of  all.  The  lips 
are  delicately  cut,  slight,  and  changeable  as  an 
aspen,  but  there  is  a  set  look  about  the  lower 
lip — a  determination  of  the  muscle  to  a  partic- 
ular expression,  and  you  fancy  that  you  can 
almost  see  wit  astride  upon  it.  .  .  .  The  slightly 
tossed  nose  confirms  the  fun  of  the  expression, 
and  altogether  it  is  a  face  that  sparkles,  beams, 
radiates." 

This  was  Moore  as  others  saw  him  when  he 
was  in  his  prime.  His  later  years  were  clouded 
by  a  loss  of  memory,  and  a  helplessness  almost 
childish.  The  light  of  his  intellect  grew  dim  by 
degrees,  although  Lord  John  Russell  said  that 
there  was  never  a  total  extinction  of  the  bright 


168  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

flame.  He  died  calmly  and  without  pain ;  and 
the  cast  of  his  face  certainly  reflects  much  that 
Willis  had  drawn  in  his  Penoillings  by  the  W((ij. 
Sheridan  said  once  of  a  fellow-Irishman  that 
Burke's  "  abilities,  happily  for  the  glory  of  our 
age,  are  not  intrusted  to  the  perishable  eloquence 
of  the  day,  but  will  live  to  be  the  admiration  of 
that  hour  when  all  of  us  shall  be  mute,  and 
most  of  us  forgotten."  Burke,  in  all  his  rela- 
tions, was  a  better  man  than  Sheridan,  and  he 
met,  as  he  deserved,  a  better  fate.  He  fell 
asleep  for  the  last  time  with  Addison's  chapter 
on  "  The  Immortality  of  the  Soul "  under  his 
pillow,  and  with  the  respect  and  gratitude  of 
all  England  at  his  feet.  The  mask  of  Burke 
was  offered  for  sale — and  was  sold — in  London 
a  few  months  ago,  with  a  certificate  from  Mr. 
Edward  B.  Wood,  stating  that  it  was  made  by 
the  especial  desire  of  Queen  Charlotte  on  the 
day  of  Burke's  death.  The  name  of  the  artist 
is  unknown,  but  he  is  said  to  have  received 
two  hundred  guineas  fur  the  work.  After  the 
death  of  her  Majesty  the  mask  was  given  by 
George  IV.  to  C.  Nugent,  his  gentleman-in-wait- 
ing, from  whom  it  came  into  the  possession  of 
his  nephew,  Mr.  Wood.  This  original  mask,  from 
the  Queen's  cabinet,  is  now  the  property  of  The 


EIIMIMI    lil-RKE 


CUKRAA  1:1 

Players.  It  is  very  like  the  familiar  portrait  of 
Burke  by  <  >pie. 

George  Combe  had  a  mask  of  Curran  in  this 
country,  of  which  mine,  no  doubt,  is  a  replica, 
as  it  bears  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  estab- 
lished portraits  of  Curran.  Its  existence  docs 
not  appear  to  have  been  known  to  the  sculptor 
of  the  medallion  head  of  Curran  on  the  monu- 
ment in  St.  Patrick's,  Dublin,  for  that  was 
avowed  1}' taken  from  the  portrait  by  Sir  Thomas 
Lawrence.  A  short  time  before  his  death  Curran 
wrote  to  a  friend  that  his  "entire  life  had  been 
passed  in  a  wretched  futurity,*'  but  that  happily 
he  had  found  the  remedy,  and  that  was  to  "  give 
over  the  folly  of  breathing  at  all."  He  ceased 
to  breathe  at  all  in  Brompton,  London,  in  the 
autumn  of  1817;  and  his  bones,  now  buried  in 
Dublin,  were  laid  for  some  years  in  a  vault  of 
Paddington  church. 

AVe  learn  from  various  sources  that  Curran  was 
under  the  middle  height,  "very  ugly."  with  in- 
tensely bright,  black  eyes,  perfectly  straight  jet- 
black  hair,  a  "thick"  complexion,  and  "a  pro- 
truding underlip  on  a  retreating  face."  Croker, 
speaking  of  his  oratory,  said  :  "You  began  by 
being  prejudiced  against  him  by  his  bad  char- 
acter and  ill-looking  appearance,  like  the  devil 


172  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

with  his  tail  cut  off,  and  you  were  at  last  carried 
away  by  his  splendid  language  and  by  the  power 
of  his  metaphor." 

The  mask  of  Lord  Palmerston  was  taken  im- 
mediately after  death  at  Brockton  Hall,  by  Mr. 
Jackson.  Only  one  cast  was  ever  made — that 
which  is  in  my  collection — and  upon  this  was 
based  the  head  upon  the  statue  of  Palmerston 
by  Mr.  Jackson,  now  in  Westminster  Abbey. 
The  Marquis  of  Lome,  in  his  Life  of  Palmer- 
ston, says  :  "  Some  of  us  may  have  seen  him  rise 
quickly  and  lightly,  when  nearly  fourscore,  from 
his  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  speak 
with  clearness  and  directness  but  no  attempt  at 
eloquence,  and  often  with  some  hesitation,  at  the 
table ;  his  black  frock-coat  buttoned  across  the 
well-knit  and  erect  figure  of  middle  stature,  his 
sentences  spoken  towards  the  bar  of  the  House ; 
his  gray  short  hair  brushed  forward  and  the 
gray  whiskers  framing  the  head  erect  on  the 
shoulders.  Some  may  remember,  under  the 
shaven  chin,  the  loose  bow-knot,  neatly  tied  at 
tiie  throat,  the  bit  of  open  shirt-front,  with 
standing  collar."  His  appearance  in  1837  is 
thus  described:  "Lord  Palmerston  is  tall  and 
handsome.  His  face  is  round  and  of  the  darkest 
line.     His   hair   is   black,    and    always   exhibits 


JOHN    PIIILPOT    CCKRAN 


LORD   PALMERSTON 


PAL  HERS  T<  is-  DISS.  I  EL  I  177 

proofs  of  the  skill  and  attention  of  the  frisi  ur. 
His  clothes  arc  in  the  extreme  of  fashion.  lie  is 
very  fond  of  his  personal  appearance."  And  Sir 
William  Fraser  sketched  him  as  he  appealed  toa 
later  generation:  "Lord  Palmerston  on  horse- 
back looked  a  biff  man,  and  standing  at  the  ta- 
ble  of  the  House  he  did  not  appear  ill  •  propor- 
tioned. Each  foot,  to  describe  it  mathematically, 
was  '  a  four-sided,  irregular  figure.'  His  portraits 
in  I'linrh  are  very  like  him.  Those  with  a  flower 
or  straw  in  the  mouth  are  the  best,  lie  had  a 
very  horsy  look." 

The  death-mask  of  Benjamin  Disraeli,  Earl  of 
Beaconsfield,  as  here  shown,  was  found  by  me  a 
year  or  two  ago  in  the  out-of-the-way  little  shop 
of  a  mould-maker  in  Chelsea.  It  was  taken  by 
Sir  Edgar  Boehm,  and  the  nose  in  the  east  was 
broken,  evidently  intentionally  and  wantonly,  by 
some  malicious  person  who  wished,  perhaps,  in 
this  iconoclastic  way  to  express  with  emphasis 
his  political  opinions.  Despite  its  mutilated  con- 
dition it  is  of  great  interest  to  all  lovers  and 
admirers  of  the  original. 

The  best  pen-portrait  of  Disraeli  as  well  as  the 
most  familiar,  is  that  of  N.  P.  Willis,  who  saw 
him,  in  his  youth,  at  Lady  Llessington's.  It  says : 
"  He  was  sitting  in  a  window  looking  on  Hyde 

12 


178  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

Park,  the  last  rays  of  sunlight  reflected  from  the 
gorgeous  gold  flowers  of  a  splendidly  embroid- 
ered waistcoat.  Patent-leather  pumps,  a  white 
stick  with  a  black  cord  and  tassel,  and  a  quantity 
of  chain  about  his  neck  and  pockets,  served  to 
make  him  a  conspicuous  object.  He  has  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  faces  I  ever  saw.  He  is 
lividly  pale,  and  but  for  the  energy  of  his  action 
and  the  strength  of  his  lungs,  would  seem  to  be 
a  victim  of  consumption.  His  eye  is  as  black  as 
Erebus  and  has  the  most  mocking,  lying-in-wait 
sort  of  expression  conceivable.  His  mouth  is 
alive  with  a  kind  of  working  and  impatient  ner- 
vousness ;  and  when  he  has  burst  forth,  as  he  does 
constantly,  with  a  particularly  successful  cataract 
of  expression,  it  assumes  a  curl  of  triumphant 
scorn  that  would  be  worthy  of  Mephistopheles. 
His  hair  is  as  extraordinary  as  his  taste  in  waist- 
coats. A  thick,  heavy  mass  of  jet-black  ring- 
lets falls  on  his  left  cheek  almost  to  his  collar- 
less  stock,  which  on  the  left  temple  is  parted  and 
put  away  with  the  smooth  carefulness  of  a  girl. 
The  conversation  turned  upon  Beckford.  I 
might  as  well  attempt  to  gather  up  the  foam  of 
the  sea  as  to  convey  an  idea  of  the  extraordinary 
language  in  which  he  clothed  his  description. 
He  talked  like  a  race -horse   approaching  the 


BENJAMIN   DISRAELI 


DISRAELI  181 

winning-post,  every  muscle  in  action."     This  is 
the  Disraeli  whom  D'<  >rsay  drew. 

Mi.  T.  Wemyss  Reid  thus  sketches  Disraeli  in 
later  life:  "Over  the  high  arched  forehead 
surely  the  forehead  of  a  poet— there  hangs  from 
the  crown  of  the  head  a  single  curl  of  dark  hair, 
a  curl  which  you  cannot  look  at  without  feeling 
a  touch  of  pathos  in  your  inmost,  heart,  for  it  is 
the  only  thing  about  the  worn  and  silent  man 
reminding  you  of  the  brilliant  youth  of  Vivian 
Grr<  //.  The  face  below  this  solitary  lock  is  deeply 
marked  with  the  furrows  left  by  care's  plough- 
share; the  fine  dark  eyes  look  downward,  the 
mouth  is  closed  with  a  iirmness  that  says  more 
for  his  tenacity  of  will  than  pages  of  eulogy 
would  do  ;  but  what  strikes  you  more  than  any- 
thing else  is  the  utter  lack  of  expression  upon 
the  countenance.  No  one  looking  at  the  face, 
though  but  for  a  moment,  could  fall  into  the  error 
of  supposing  that  expression  and  intelligence  are 
not  there  ;  they  are  there,  but  in  concealment." 

Mr.  W.  P.  Frith,  in  his  Autobiography,  more 
than  once  alludes  to  the  devotion  of  Mrs.  Dis- 
raeli to  her  husband,  and  he  quotes  John  Phillips 
as  describing  the  painting  of  Disraeli's  portrait. 
After  the  subject  and  his  wife  had  seen  the 
sketch,  during  the  first  sitting,  the  colors  being 


182  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

necessarily  crude,  the  lady  returned  hastily  to 
the  studio,  and  said  to  the  painter:  "Remember 
that  his  pallor  is  his  beauty  !'' 

Dr.  Wilde,  afterwards  Sir  William  Wilde,  pub- 
lished in  Dublin,  in  1849,  a  volume  entitled 
The  Closing  Years  of  Dean  Swiff  s  -Life,  a  very 
interesting  book  now  long  out  of  print.  It  is  an 
elaborate  defence  of  Swift's  sanity,  and  it  con- 
tains a  full  account  of  the  plaster  mask  taken 
from  the  Dean's  face  "after  the  post-mortem 
examination."  From  this,  he  said,  "a  bust  was 
made  and  placed  in  the  museum  of  the  University, 
which,  notwithstanding  its  possessing  much  of 
the  cadaverous  appearance,  is,  we  are  strongly  in- 
clined to  believe,  the  best  likeness  of  Swift — dur- 
ing, at  least,  the  last  few  years  of  his  life — now 
in  existence."  Speaking  of  this  mask,  Sir  Walter 
Scott  wrote :  "  The  expression  of  countenance  is 
most  unequivocally  maniacal,  and  one  side  of 
the  mouth  (the  left)  horribly  contorted  down- 
wards, as  if  convulsed  by  pain."  Dr.  Wilde,  on 
the  other  hand, said:  "The  expression  is  remark- 
ably placid ;  but  there  is  an  evident  drag  in  the 
left  side  of  the  mouth,  exhibiting  a  paralysis  of 
the  facial  muscles  of  the  right  side,  which,  we 
have  reason  to  believe,  existed  for  some  years 
before  his  death." 


JONATHAN    SWIFT 


SWIFT  185 

Dr.  Wilde  compared  this  cast  <>f  Swift's  face, 
taken  immediately  alter  death,  with  the  casl  and 
drawing's  of  Ins  skull  made  in  L835,  ninety  years 

later,  when  the  bodies  of  Swift  and  Stella  were 
exhumed,  and  their  eraniums  examined  by  the 
phrenologists  belonging  to  the  British  Associa- 
tion; and  by  careful  analysis  of  both,  he  was 
able  to  satisfy  himself  that  Swift  was  not  "a 
driveller  and  a  show  "  when  he  died,  nor  a  mad- 
man while  he  lived.  He  gave,  upon  the  sixty- 
second  page  of  his  book,  a  drawing  of  this  mask 
in  profile,  and  the  face  is  certainly  identical  with 
the  face  in  my  collection.  It  resembles  very 
strongly  the  accepted  portraits  of  Swift,  particu- 
larly the  two  in  which  he  was  drawn  without  his 
wig.  The  more  familiar  of  these  is  a  profile  in 
crayon,  by  Barber,  taken  when  the  Dean  was 
about  sixty  years  of  age  —  and  eighteen  years 
before  his  death  —  which  has  been  frequently 
engraved  for  the  several  editions  of  Lord  Or- 
rery's Remarks  on  the  Life  and  Writings  of 
Jonathan  Swift,  first  published  in  1751.  The 
original  cast  was  made  in  two  parts,  according 
to  Dr.  Wilde,  and  the  difference  in  surface  be- 
tween the  rough  hinder  part  —  not  existing  in 
my  copy — and  the  smooth  polished  anterior  por- 
tion, as  here  seen,  shows  at  once  that  the  back  of 


1S6  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTEH 

the  head  was  added  at  a  later  date.  Two  lines 
of  writing,  greatly  defaced,  found  upon  the  cast 
attest  this  to  be  "  Dean  Swift  taken  off  his  .... 
the  night  of  his  burial,  and  the  ....  one  side 
larger  than  the  other  in  nature."  In  a  foot-note 
to  the  second  edition  of  his  work,  Dr.  Wilde  said: 
"  The  original  mask  remained  in  the  museum 
T.C.D.  [Trinity  College,  Dublin]  till  within  a 
few  years  ago  [1S49],  when  it  was  accidentally 
destroyed."  The  history  of  this  replica  —  for 
replica  it  certainly  is — before  it  came  into  my 
hands  I  have  never  been  able  to  trace.  It  found 
its  way  into  the  shop  of  a  dealer  in  curiosities, 
who  knew  nothing  of  its  pedigree,  not  even 
whose  face  it  was ;  and  from  him  I  bought  it  for 
a  few  shillings.  It  is  one  of  the  most  interesting 
of  the  collection,  and  perhaps  the  most  valuable, 
because  the  most  rare.  It  is  hardly  the  Swift  of 
our  imagination,  the  man  whom  Stella  worshipped 
and  Vanessa  adored  ;  and,  Dr.  AVilde  to  the  con- 
trary, notwithstanding,  one  cannot  help  feeling 
while  looking  at  it  that  Swift's  own  sad  prophecy 
to  Dr.  Young  was  fulfilled — "  I  shall  be  like  that 
lofty  elm  whose  head  has  been  blasted ;  I  shall 
die  first  at  the  top." 

At  least  one  of  the  biographers  of  the  Irish 
dean  died  as  Byron  often  feared  to  die.  "like 


SCOTT  's; 

Swift,  at  the  top  first."  Sir  Walter  Scott's  de- 
cay was  a  mental  decay  in  the  beginning  of  his 
last  illness;  but  happily  for  him,  and  for  his 
family,  the  axe  was  laid  at  the  root  of  the 
o-rand  old  monarch  of  the  forest  of  Scottish 
letters  before  the  upper  branches  were  permit- 
ted to  go  to  utter  ruin. 

There  exist  at  Abbotsford  two  masks  of  its 
first  laird  — a  life-mask  and  a  death-mask.     Of 
the  former  very  little  is  known  except  that  it 
is  said  to  have  been  made  in  Paris.     The  latter 
was  exhibited  at  the  Scott  Centenary  Celebra- 
tion in  Edinburgh,  in  1871,  when  it  attracted  a 
great  deal  of  attention.     They  both  show,  as  no 
portrait  of  the  living  man  shows,  except  the  fa- 
miliar sketch  by  Maclise  in  the  Fraser  Gallery, 
the  peculiar  formation  of  his  head,  and  the  un- 
usual length  above  the  eyes.     Lockhart,  in  his 
account  of  Scott's  last  hours,  said :  "  It  was  a 
beautiful  day  ;  so  warm  that  every  window  was 
wide  open,  and  so  perfectly  still  that  the  sound 
of  all  others  most  delicious  to  his  ears— the  gen- 
tle ripple  of  the  Tweed  over  its  pebbles  — was 
distinctly  audible  as  we  knelt  around  the  bed, 
and  his  eldest  son  kissed  and  closed  his  eyes. 
No  sculptor  ever  marbled  a  more  majestic  im- 
age of  repose." 


188  PORTRAITS  AV  PLASTER 

He  does  not  mention  the  taking  of  the  death- 
mask,  however,  and  nowhere  alludes  to  it.  It 
was  made  by  George  Bullock — it  is  said,  at  the 
request  of  Dr.  Spurzheim  —  and  Bullock  and 
Cbantrey  both  used  it  in  modelling  posthumous 
busts  of  the  bard.  It  was  loaned  to  Sir  (then 
Mr.)  Edwin  Landseer  while  he  was  painting  his 
full-length  portrait  of  Sir  Walter,  with  the  back- 
ground of  the  scenery  of  the  Rhymer's  Glen. 

Bullock  supposed  that  the  original  mould  was 
destroyed  not  long  after  Scott's  death,  but  Mr. 
Gourlay  Steel  writes  that  his  brother,  Sir  John 
Steel,  while  engaged  upon  the  monument  to 
Lockbart  at  Dryburgh  Abbey,  some  years  later, 
came  upon  it  accidentally  at  Abbotsford,  and 
used  it  in  remodelling  his  bust  of  Sir  Walter 
for  Mr.  Hope-Scott. 

Cbantrey,  in  comparing  the  measurements  of 
Scott's  head  from  this  mask  with  the  measure- 
ments he  had  made  of  the  head  of  Shakspere 
on  the  Stratford  monument  —  which  latter  he 
had  always  considered  unnatural,  if  not  impossi- 
ble— found,  to  his  great  surprise,  that  they  were 
almost  identical  in  height  from  the  eyes  up;  and 
in  each  case  he  noticed  the  very  unusual  length 
of  the  upper-lip.  It  was  this  dome-like  feature 
of  Scott's  head  which  inspired  one  of  his  jocular 


SIR    WALTER    SCOTT 


SCOTT— BURNS  19] 

friends  in  Edinburgh  to  hail  him  once,  when  he 
dragged  himself  up  the  stairs  of  the  Session 
House  with  his  hat  in  his  hand,  as  "Peveril  of 
the  Peak." 

When  Carlyle  last  saw  Scott — they  never  met 
to  exchange  a  word — it  was  in  one  of  the  streets 
of  Edinburgh,  late  in  Scott's  life ;  and,  "  Alas  !" 
wrote  the  younger  man,  "  his  fine  Scottish  face, 
with  its  shaggy  honesty  and  goodness,  was  all 
worn  witli  care,  the  joy  all  fled  from  it,  and 
ploughed  deep  with  labor  and  sorrow." 

Eighteen  months  after  the  death  of  Scott,  the 
Burns  mausoleum  at  Dumfries  was  opened  to 
receive  the  remains  of  Burns's  widow,  when,  ac- 
cording to  the  appendix  to  the  first  edition  of 
Allan  Cunningham's  Life  of  Burns,  then  going 
through  the  press,  a  cast  was  taken  from  the 
cranium  of  the  poet.  Mr.  Archibald  Black- 
lock,  surgeon  of  Dumfries,  who  made  the  ex- 
amination, declared  that  "  the  cranial  bones 
were  perfect  in  every  respect,  and  were  firm- 
ly held  together  by  their  sutures,"  etc.,  etc. 
Unfortunately  there  is  no  cast  of  the  head 
of  the  poet,  living  or  dead,  except  this  one 
here  shown  of  his  fleshless  skull.  George 
Combe,  who  received  a  replica  of  it  from  the 
executors  of  Mrs.  Burns,  presented  a  number  of 


193  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

wood-cuts  of  it,  in  various  positions,  in  his  Phre- 
nology., and  he  was  very  fond  of  using  it  to  point 
his  morals. 

It  is  unusually  large,  even  for  the  skull  of 
a  Scotchman  ;  and  viewed  laterally,  its  length, 
due  to  the  magnitude  of  the  anterior  lobe,  is 
enormous. 

Combe  frequently  reproduced  the  skull  of 
Eobert  the  Bruce,  shown  here  as  well,  although 
he  failed  to  explain  the  mystery  of  its  existence 
in  plaster.  The  skeletons  of  Bruce  and  his  queen 
were  discovered  early  in  the  present  century  by 
a  party  of  workmen  who  were  making  certain 
repairs  in  the  Abbey  Church  of  Dunfermline. 
The  bones  of  the  hero  of  Bannockburn  were 
identified  from  the  description  of  the  interment 
in  contemporary  records,  and  from  the  fact  that 
the  ribs  on  the  left  side  had  been  roughly  sawn 
away  when  the  heart  was  delivered  to  Sir  James 
Douglas,  and  sent  off  on  its  pious  and  romantic, 
but  unsuccessful,  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land. 
The  skull  of  Bruce,  in  an  excellent  state  of  pres- 
ervation, was  examined  carefully  by  the  Phren- 
ological Society  of  Edinburgh,  then  in  the  high- 
est tide  of  its  enthusiasm  and  prosperity  ;  and 
with  the  consent  of  the  Crown,  this  cast  of  it 
was  made.     A  gentleman  who  wrote  anonymous- 


ROBERT    BURNS 


KING    ROBERT    THE    BRUCE 


NAPOLEON  I.  197 

ly  to  Notes  and  Queries,  August  '-'7.  L859,  some 
forty  years  later,  said  that  he  remembered  dis- 
tinctly seeing1  and  handling-  tins  skull,  and  the 
great  sensation  its  discovery  created.  It  was 
reinterred  in  its  original  resting-place  a  tiny  or 
two  later. 

The  London  Times  contained,  not  very  long 
ago,  the  following  curious  advertisement :  "  Na- 
poleon  I.  For  sale,  the  original  mask  moulded 
at  Saint  Helena  by  Dr.  Antomarchi.  Price  re- 
quired, £6000.     Address,''  etc.,  etc. 

Dr.  F.  Antomarchi,  a  native  of  Corsica,  and  a 
professor  of  anatomy  at  Florence,  at  the  request 
of  Cardinal  Fesch  and  of  "  Madame  Mere,"  and 
with  the  consent  of  the  British  government,  went 
to  Saint  Helena  in  1819  as  physician  to  the  exiled 
Emperor.  He  closed  his  master's  eyes  in  death ; 
and  immediately  before  the  official  post-mortem 
examination,  held  the  next  day,  he  made  the 
mask  in  question.  He  said  in  his  report  that  the 
face  was  relaxed,  but  that  the  mask  was  correct 
so  far  as  the  shape  of  the  forehead  and  nose  was 
concerned.  And  unquestionably  it  is  the  most 
truthful  portrait  of  Bonaparte  that  exists. 

AVhen  Napoleon  thought  himself  closely  ob- 
served, he  had,  according  to  Sir  Walter  Scott, 
"the  power  of  discharging  from  his  countenance 


198  PORTRAITS  JX  PLASTER 

all  expression  save  that  of  an  indefinite  smile, 
and  presenting  to  the  curious  investigator  the 
fixed  and  rigid  eyes  of  a  marble  bust."  As  he  is 
here  observed,  no  matter  how  curiously  or  how 
closely,  he  is  seen  as  he  was.  It  is  the  face  of 
Napoleon  off  his  guard. 

Bonaparte's  distinguishing  traits  were  selfish- 
ness, combativeness,  destructiveness,  acquisitive- 
ness, secretiveness,  self-esteem,  and  love  of  appro- 
bation, lie  had  some  vague  notion  of  benevo- 
lence and  of  veneration,  but  he  was  blind  to  the 
dictates  of  truth  and  of  justice,  and  he  was  so 
utterly  deficient  in  conscientiousness  that  he 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  conscious  of  its  ex- 
istence. 

His  entire  character  was  summed  up  once  in 
four  broken-English  words,  by  an  ignorant  little 
local  guide  in  Berlin.  Fritz,  showing  a  party  of 
Americans  through  the  royal  palace  at  Charlot- 
tenburg,  worked  himself  up  to  a  pitch  of  patri- 
otic frenzy  in  describing  the  conduct  of  the  par- 
venu French  Emperor  during  his  occupancy  of 
the  private  apartments  of  the  legitimate  German 
Queen,  and  he  concluded  his  harangue  by  saying, 
quietly  and  decidedly,  "But  then,  you  know, 
Napoleon  was  no  gentleman !" 

That  seems  to  tell  the  whole  story.     He  was, 


<> 


^ 


t  ,; 


NAPOLEON   I. 


NAPOLEON  I.— NAPOLEON  111.  .Ml 

ill  his  way.  the  greatest  man  who  ever  lived.  He 
stepped  from  a  humble  cradle  in  an  Italian  pro- 
vincial town  on  to  the  throne  of  France;  he 
made  his  commonplace  brothers  and  sisters  and 
his  ignorant  henchmen  kings  and  queens  of  all 
the  European  countries  within  his  reach ;  he 
locked  a  pope  in  a  closet,  as  if  he  had  been  a 
naughty  boy ;  he  re-drew  the  map  of  half  the 
world ;  he  re-wrote  history ;  his  name  will  live 
as  long  as  books  are  read ;  no  man  out  of  so  little 
ever  accomplished  so  much — but  yet  he  was  no 
gentleman ! 

The  Bonaparte  mask,  in  bronze,  as  here  shown 
is  very  rare.  Only  four  are  known  to  exist. 
The  copy  in  the  Paris  Mint — Hotel  des  Jf<>iiu<n'<  s 
— is  without  the  gilded  wreath  which  this  copy 
possesses.  It  is  said  to  have  "  been  taken  from 
the  Emperor's  face  at  St.  Helena,  twenty  hours 
after  his  death." 

The  mask  of  Napoleon  III.  was  taken,  of 
course,  at  Chiselhurst.  Louis  Napoleon  Bona- 
parte was  distinguished,  particularly,  as  being  the 
only  Bonaparte,  for  four  generations  at  least,  who 
bore  no  resemblance  whatever  to  the  Bonaparte 
family,  not  one  of  the  strongly  marked  facial 
traits  so  universal  in  the  tribe  appearing  in  him. 

No  matter  what  may  have  been  his  shortcom- 


203  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

ings  in  other  respects,  he  was  devoted  to  his 
mother  and  to  her  memory.  She  used  to  call 
him  "the  mildly  obstinate;"  and  the  maternal 
judgment,  perhaps,  was  mildly  correct.  King- 
lake  expressed  it  more  epigrammatically  when 
he  said  that  "  his  characteristic  was  a  faltering 
boldness."  The  historian  of  the  Crimea,  in  his 
account  of  the  attempt  at  Strasburg  in  1S36, 
pictured  Prince  Louis  as  "  a  young  man  with  the 
bearing  and  the  countenance  of  a  weaver  —  a 
weaver  oppressed  by  long  hours  of  monotonous 
in-door  work,  which  makes  the  body  stoop  and 
keeps  the  eyes  downcast."  Those  half-shut  eyes 
impressed  every  one  who  saw  the  Third  Napo- 
leon in  life.  He  was  called  by  Madden,  in  his 
M<  mows  of  the  ( 'ountess  of  Blessington,  "  the  man 
with  the  heavy  eyelids,  with  the  leaden  hand  of 
care  and  calculation  pressing  them  down — the 
man-mystery,  the  depths  of  whose  duplicity  no 
GEdipus  has  yet  sounded — the  man  with  the  pale, 
corpse-like,  imperturbable  features."  Neither 
Mr.  Kinglake  nor  the  chosen  biographer  of  the 
Elessingtons,  however,  was  an  impartial  witness. 
Henry  Wikoff,  on  the  other  hand,  declared  that 
his  face  recorded  resolution,  and  that  his  eyes, 
which  he  kept  half  closed,  revealed  subtlety  as 
well  as  daring.     "  His  manner,"  according  to  the 


NAPOLEON    III. 


NAPOLEON  HI.— CROMWELL  805 

Chevalier,  '-was  graceful,  composed,  and  very 
distingue.  He  had  the  air  of  a  man  superior  by 
nature  as  by  birth."  And  .Mrs.  Browning  be- 
lieved in  him  and  trusted  him,  and  called  him 
"the  good  and  the  just."  He  was  perhaps  the 
mildest-mannered  man  who  ever  scuttled  ship  of 
State,  or  cut  a  political  throat. 

The  cast  of  the  dead  face  of  Oliver  Cromwell, 
which  was  for  some  years  in  the  cabinet  of  the 
Mint  at  Washington,  bears  the  following  inscrip- 
tion— copied  verbatim  : 

This  Mask  is  from  the 
original  <>m   desct  ndetl 
from    Richard,  Protector 
in  poss:   Mrs.  Russell 

Clii.it/iiiiit    /'or/,-. 


BORN 

died 

1626 

Richard 
left  tliem  to  hi*  dau. 

1712 

1650 

Elizabeth 
to  her  cousins 

1731 

1695 

Richard — Thomas 

1759 

left  the  mask 

to  his  dau  : 
Anne  Eliz  Exc,rs- 

they  left  it  to 

Oliver  Cromwell 

he  left  it  to 

his  daughter 

Mrs.  Russell. 

206  PORTRAITS  IX  PLASTER 

In  1859  it  was  presented  by  Henry  M.  Field, 
Queen's  Assay  Master  at  the  London  Mint,  and 
a  direct  descendant  of  Cromwell,  to  the  late 
William  E.  Du  Bois,  who  was  for  nearhy  half  a 
century  an  officer  of  the  mint  at  Washington. 
Shortly  before  his  death  the  latter  gentleman 
removed  it  to  his  own  house ;  and  it  is  now  in 
the  possession  of  his  son,  Mr.  Patterson  Du  Bois 
of  Philadelphia,  through  whose  kindness  the 
pedigree  given  is  here  printed. 

Cromwell,  according  to  the  Commonwealth 
M<  rcury  of  November  23,  1658,  was  buried 
tli at  day  at  the  east  end  of  the  chapel  of  Henry 
VII.,  in  Westminster  Abbey.  Dean  Stanley 
accepted  this  as  an  established  fact,  notwith- 
standing the  several  reports,  long  current,  that 
the  body  was  thrown  into  the  Thames,  or  laid 
in  the  held  of  Xaseby,  or  carried  to  the  vault  of 
the  Claypoles  in  the  parish  church  of  North- 
ampton, or  stolen  during  a  heavy  tempest  in 
the  night,  or  placed  in  the  coffin  of  Charles  I. 
at  Windsor,  Mr.  Samuel  Pepys  being  responsible 
for  the  last  wild  statement.  After  the  Restora- 
tion this  same  Mr.  Pepys  saw  the  disinterred 
iiead  of  Cromwell  in  the  interior  of  Westminster 
Hall,  although  all  the  other  authorities  agree 
in   statinir  that,  with  the   heads  of  Ireton  and 


OUTER    CROMWELL 


CROMWELL  20!) 

Bradshaw,  it  adorned  the  outer  walls  of  that 
building. 

It  may  be  stated,  by  the  way,  that  a  trust- 
worthy friend  of  Mr.  Pepys,  and  a  fellow-diarist, 
one  John  Evelyn, witnessed  "the  superb  funerall 
of  the  Lord  Protector."  He  was  carried  from 
Somerset  House  in  a  velvet  bed-of-state  to  West- 
minster Abbey,  according  to  this  latter  author- 
ity: and  "it  was  the  joyfullest  funerall  I  ever 
saw.  for  there  were  none  that  cried  but  dogs, 
which  the  soldiers  hooted  away  with  a  barbarous 
noise,  drinking  and  taking  tobacco  in  the  streets 
as  thev  went."  It  does  not  seem  to  have  oc- 
curred  to  Mr.  Evelyn,  or  to  other  eye-witnesses 
of  the  funeral,  that  this  was  a  mock  ceremonial, 
and  that  the  actual  body  of  the  Protector  was 
not  in  the  hearse. 

Both  Horace  Smith  and  Cyrus  Bedding,  early 
in  the  present  century,  saw  what  they  fully  be- 
lieved to  be  the  head  of  Cromwell.  It  was  then 
in  the  possession  of  "  a  medical  gentleman "  in 
London.  "The  nostrils,"  said  Bedding,  'were 
filled  with  a  substance  like  cotton.  The  brain 
had  been  extracted  by  dividing  the  scalp.  The 
membranes  within  were  perfect,  but  dried  up, 
and  looked  like  parchment.  The  decapitation 
had  evidently  been  performed  after  death,  as  the 


210  PORTRAITS  IX  PLASTER 

state  of  the  flesh  over  the  vertebra?  of  the  neck 
plainly  showed." 

A  correspondent  of  the  London  Times,  sign- 
ing himself  "  Senex,"  wrote  to  that  journal,  un- 
der date  December  31,  1874,  a  full  history  of 
this  head,  in  which  he  explained  that  at  the  end 
of  five-and-twenty  years  it  was  blown  down  one 
stormy  night,  and  picked  up  by  a  sentry,  whose 
family  sold  it  to  one  of  the  Cambridgeshire  Eus- 
sells,  who  were  the  nearest  living  descendants  of 
the  Cromwells.  By  them  it  was  sold,  and  it  was 
exhibited  at  several  places  in  London.  "  Senex  " 
gave  the  following  account  of  the  recognition  of 
the  head  by  Flaxman,  the  sculptor:  "Well," 
said  Flaxman,  "  I  know  a  great  deal  about  the 
configuration  of  the  head  of  Oliver  Cromwell. 
He  had  a  low,  broad  forehead,  large  orbits  to  his 
eves,  a  high  septum  to  the  nose,  and  high  cheek- 
bones ;  but  there  is  one  feature  which  will  be 
with  me  a  crucial  test,  and  that  is  that  instead 
of  having  the  lower  jawbone  somewhat  curved, 
it  was  particularly  short  and  straight,  but  set 
out  at  an  angle,  which  gave  him  a  jowlish  ap- 
pearance. The  head,"  continued  "Senex,"  "ex- 
actlv  answered  to  the  description,  and  Flaxman 
went  away  expressing  himself  as  convinced  and 
delighted."     Another,  and  an  earlier   account, 


•  UOMWELL  an 

dated  1813,  says  that  "  the  countenance  lias  been 
compared  by  Mr.  Flaxman,  the  statuary,  with  a 
plaster  cast  (if  ( (liver's  face  taken  alter  his  ileal  h 
[of  which  there  are  several  in  London],  and  be 
|  Flaxman  |  declares  the  features  are  perfectly 
similar." 

Whether  or  not  the  body  of  the  real  Crom- 
well was  dug  up  at  the  liestoration,  and  wheth- 
er his  own  head,  or  that  of  some  other  unfortu- 
nate, was  exposed  on  a  spike  to  the  fury  of  the 
elements  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  on  Westmin- 
ster Hall.  are.  questions  which,  perhaps,  will  nev- 
er be  decided.  The  head  which  Flaxman  saw, 
as  it  is  to  be  found  engraved  in  contemporary 
prints,  is  not  the  head  the  cast  of  which  is  now 
in  my  possession,  although  it  bears  a  certain  re- 
semblance thereto.  Mine  is  probably  "the  cast 
from  the  lace  taken  [immediately]  after  his 
death,"  of  which,  as  we  have  seen,  several  cop- 
ies were  known  to  exist  in  Flaxman's  time.  It 
is,  at  all  events,  very  like  to  the  Cromwell  who 
has  been  handed  down  to  posterity  by  the  lim- 
ners and  the  statuaries  of  his  own  court.  Thom- 
as Carlyle  was  familiar  with  it,  and  believed  in 
it,  and  he  avowedly  based  upon  it  his  famous 
picture  of  the  Protector:  "  Big  massive  head,  of 
somewhat  leonine  aspect ;  wart  above  the  right 


212  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

eyebrow  ;  nose  of  considerable  blunt  aquiline  pro- 
portions ;  strict  }'et  copious  lips,  full  of  all  tremu- 
lous sensibility,  and  also,  if  need  were,  of  all 
fierceness  and  rigor  ;  deep,  loving  eyes,  call  them 
grave,  call  them  stern,  looking  from  under  those 
shaggy  brows  as  if  in  lifelong  sorrow,  and  yet 
not  thinking  it  sorrow,  thinking  it  only  labor  and 
endeavor ;  on  the  whole,  a  right  noble  lion-face 
and  hero-face ;  and  to  me  it  was  royal  enough." 

The  copy  of  the  Cromwell  mask  in  the  Library 
of  Harvard  College  is  thus  inscribed :  "  A  cast 
from  the  original  mask  taken  after  death,  once 
owned  by  Thomas  Woolner,  Sculptor.  It  was 
given  by  him  to  Thomas  Carlyle,  who  gave  it, 
in  1873,  to  Charles  Eliot  Norton,  from  whom 
Harvard  College  received  it  in  1881." 

A  copy  of  this  mask  in  plaster  is  in  the  office  of 
the  National  Portrait  Gallery,  in  Great  George 
Street,  Westminster;  and  a  wax  mask,  resem- 
bling it  strongly,  although  not  identical  with  it, 
is  to  be  seen  in  the  British  Museum.  This  lat- 
ter, which  is  broken  in  several  places,  lacks  the 
familiar  wart  above  the  right  eyebrow.  There 
is  no  record  of  either  of  these  casts  in  either  in- 
stitution, and  the  authorities  and  experts  of  both 
have  no  knowledge  as  to  how  and  when  they 
found  their  way  to  their  present  resting-places. 


VROMWELL—BENRy  TV.  213 

Rev.  Mark  Noble,  in  bis  House  of  Cromwell, 
however,  said  that  the  representative  in  London 
of  Ferdinand  EI.,  of  Tuscany,  bribed  an  attend- 
ant of  Cromwell  to  permit  him  to  take  in  secret 
"a  mask  of  the  Protector  in  plaster  of  Paris, 
which  was  done  only  a  few  moments  after  his 
Highness's  dissolution."  "A  east  from  this 
mould,"  he  added,  "  is  now  in  the  Florentine 
Gallery.  It  is  either  of  bronze,  with  a  brassy 
hue,  or  stained  to  give  it  that  appearance." 
Elsewhere  Mr.  Noble  said,  writing  in  17:57.  that 
"the  baronial  family  of  Russell  are  in  possession 
of  a  wax  mask  of  Oliver,  which  is  supposed  to 
have  been  taken  off  while  he  was  living." 

After  a  careful  study  of  all  the  Florentine  gal- 
Leries  in  the  winter  of  1S92-93, 1  failed  to  find  this 
copy  of  the  Cromwell  mask  or  any  record  of  its 
ever  having  existed  there,  although  the  Pitti 
Palace  contains  an  original  portrait  of  Cromwell 
from  life  by  Sir  Peter  Lely,  which  was  presented 
by  the  Protector  to  this  same  Grand  Duke  Fer- 
dinand II. 

The  mask  of  Henry  IV.,  that  darling  king 
whose  praises  still  the  Frenchmen  sing,  has  also 
a  curious  history.  During  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, as  is  well  known,  the  tombs  of  the  Bour- 
bons and  the  Valois  at  St.  Denis  were  desecrated 


214  PORTHAITS  IN  PLASTER 

by  the  citizens  of  the  republic.  And  when  they 
began  to  "  empty  the  rat-hole  under  the  high 
altar,"  to  use  the  words  of  one  of  their  own  lead- 
ers, the  first  coffin  they  came  upon  was  that  of 
Henry  of  Navarre.  Tiie  body  was  discovered  to 
have  been  carefully  embalmed,  and  it  was  en- 
veloped in  a  series  of  narrow  bands  of  linen, 
steeped  in  some  chemical  preparation.  The  face 
was  so  well  preserved  that  even  the  fan-shaped 
beard  seemed  as  if  it  had  been  but  recently 
dressed.  The  upper  part  of  the  brain  had  been 
removed,  and  was  replaced  by  a  sponge  filled 
with  aromatic  essences.  Enormous  crowds  came 
from  Paris  to  look  upon  what  was  left  of  the 
monarch  who  once  wished  that  all  his  subjects 
might  have  capon  for  their  Sunday  dinners;  and 
undoubtedly  some  one  of  them  made  this  cast  of 
his  face.  It  is  still  a  common  object  in  the 
plaster  shops  of  Paris  ;  and,  painted  a  dark  green 
to  match  the  lintel  of  his  door,  it  serves  to-day 
as  a  sign  and  a  symbol  for  a  dealer  in  plaster  im- 
ages who  does  business  in  one  of  the  side  streets 
near  upper  Broadway,  New  York. 

M.  Germain  Bapst,  writing  in  the  Gazette  des 
/!•<",.,■  A /is,  October,  1891,  described  a  bust  of 
Henry  in  wax  which  is  preserved  at  Chantilly; 
and  he  proved  it  to  be  the  work  of  G.  Dupre, 


HENRY    IV.    OF    FRANCE 


i     HENRI    IV.  -.'IT 

who,  according  to  Malherbe,  a  contemporary  his- 
torian, went  to  the  Louvre  the  day  after  the 
king's  death  to  make  the  wax  effigy  for  his  fu- 
neral, and  took  with  him  the  modeller,  who  made 
a  cast  from  the  king's  features.  Concerning  this 
cast  itself  the  writer  was  silent ;  but  he  stated, 
although  without  giving  his  authority,  that  the 
plaster  cast  here  reproduced  dates  back  only  to 
the  time  of  the  exhumation. 

A  scarce  contemporary  French  engraving,  en- 
titled "  Henri  IV.  Exhume,"  represents  the  king 
as  standing  upright  in  an  open  coffin,  against  one 
of  the  great  stone  pillars  in  the  vaults  of  St. 
Denis.  The  body  is  wrapped  in  strips  of  cloth, 
like  an  Egyptian  mummy,  but  the  head  and 
shoulders  are  entirely  exposed.  A  long  inscrip- 
tion, at  the  bottom  of  the  print,  explains  that 
"  on  this  occasion  a  plaster  cast  was  taken  of  the 
face — on  a  mouU  sur  la  nature  nieme  le  pldtre — 
from  which  to-day  artists  make  their  portraits  of 
the  great  sovereign.  The  drawing  upon  which 
this  engraving  is  based  was  executed  by  an  eye- 
witness, and  it  shows  the  exact  and  marvellous 
state  of  preservation  in  which  the  body  of  the 
founder  of  the  Bourbons  was  discovered.  There 
was  an  effort  made  by  the  National  Assembly  to 
preserve  this  precious  relic ;  but,  alas,  it  was  too 


•218  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

late."    The  original  mask  of  Henry  is  now  in  the 
Library  of  Ste.  Genevieve,  in  Paris. 

Charles  XII.  of  Sweden  was  a  soldier  and  lit- 
tle else.  He  knew  no  such  word  as  fear.  He 
was  haughty  and  inflexible.  He  never  thought 
of  consulting  the  happiness  of  his  people.  He 
ascended  the  throne  of  a  nation  rich,  powerful, 
and  happy ;  he  died  king  of  a  country  which  was 
ruined,  wretched,  and  defenceless.  Whether  or 
not  he  was  killed  by  one  of  his  own  soldiers,  his- 
tory has  never  been  able  to  determine.  He  Avas 
shot  in  the  head  at  the  siege  of  Frederickshald, 
in  Norway,  in  1718;  and  when  his  body  was  ex- 
humed aud  examined,  a  hundred  and  fifty  years 
later,  "  the  centre  of  his  forehead  was  found  to 
be  disfigured  by  a  depression  corresponding  with 
a  fracture  of  that  part  of  the  skull."  The  fatal 
missile  had  passed  entirely  through  the  King's 
head  from  left  to  right  in  a  downward  direction; 
and  in  the  cast  in  my  collection  the  indentures, 
particularly  the  larger  one  on  the  right  temple, 
are  clearly  perceptible.  An  engraving  of  this 
death-mask,  dated  1823,  contains  the  legend  that 
it  was  '•  made  four  hours  after  he  was  shot,  and 
was  taken  from  the  original  cast  preserved  in  the 
University  Library  at  Cambridge,  by  Angelica 
Clarke." 


CHARLES    XII.   OF    SWFDF.N 


CHARLES  XII— FREDERICK    THE  GREAT        231 

The  copy  of  this  cast  in  the  British  Museum  is 
from  the  Christy  collection.  Eenry  Christy  is 
known  to  have  been  in  Stockholm  at  the  time  of 
the  sale  of  the  effects  of  Baestrom,  the  Swedish 
sculptor,  and  he  is  believed  to  have  purchased  it 
then  and  there.  Jt  contains  more  of  the  top 
and  hack  of  the  head  than  the  cast  here  re- 
produced, and  it  bears,  very  unmistakably,  evi- 
dences of  the  bullet  wounds  in  the  temples.  This 
cast,  the  wax  mask  of  Cromwell  mentioned  above, 
and  a  cast  of  the  face  of  James  II.  of  England, 
ai'e  the  only  things  of  the  kind  the  British  Mu- 
seum possesses. 

Lavater  wrote  with  unbounded  enthusiasm  of 
the  impression  made  upon  him  by  the  face  of 
Frederick  the  Great,  whom  he  once  saw  in  life. 
"Of  all  the  physiognomies  I  have  ever  exam- 
ined," he  said,  "there  is  not  a  single  one  which 
bears  so  strongly  as  this  does  the  impress  of  its 
high  destiny.  The  forehead,  which  forms  almost 
a  straight  and  continued  line  with  the  nose,  an- 
nounces impatience  against  the  human  race,  and 
communicates  the  expression  of  it  to  the  cheeks 
and  lips,"  etc.  And  Mr.  Fowler,  who  knew 
Frederick  only  by  his  portraits,  ascribed  to  him 
fine  temperament,  intense  mentality,  great  cleai'- 
ness  and  sharpness  of  thought,  with  a  tendency 


232  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

to  scholarship,  and  especially  to  languages,  and 
with  immense  acquisitiveness. 

Carlyle  wrote :  "  All  next  day  the  body  [of 
Frederick]  lay  in  state  in  the  Palace ;  thousands 
crowding,  from  Berlin  and  the  other  environs,  to 
see  the  face  for  the  last  time.  Wasted,  worn, 
but  beautiful  in  death,  with  the  thin  gray  hair 
parted  into  locks  and  slightly  powdered.  And 
at  eight  in  the  evening,  Friday,  18th  [of  August, 
1786],  he  was  borne  to  the  Garrison  -  kirche  of 
Potsdam,  and  laid  beside  his  father  in  the  vault 
behind  the  pulpit  there." 

The  original  of  this  cast  of  Frederick  the 
Great  is  in  the  Hohenzollern  Museum  in  Ber- 
lin, and  of  course  is  authentic.  My  own  copy 
I  brought  from  Berlin  some  ten  years  ago,  with 
the  consent  of  the  authorities  of  the  Museum. 

Concerning  the  personal  appearance  of  Gen- 
eral Grant,  Mr.  William  A.  Purrington,  of  New 
York,  thus  writes  in  a  private  letter,  which  he  has 
kindly  permitted  me  to  make  public: 

"When  I  first  knew  the  General  I  was  a 
school -boy,  and  of  course  felt  the  school -boy's 
awe  of  a  great  man.  Privileged  to  know  him 
for  years  in  the  intimacy  of  his  own  home,  I 
never  entirely  overcame  that  feeling.  What  was 
heroic  in  him  grew,  and  did  not  diminish.     The 


FREDERICK    THE    GREAT 


GRANT  225 

more  I  saw  of  him  the  more  I  felt  that  he  was 
good  as  well  as  great.  His  face  used  to  be  called 
sphinx-like.  That  was  scarcely  true,  for  although 
its  expression  was  always  calm,  strong,  imper- 
turbable, it  was  also  one  of  great  gentleness. 
He  surely  was  a  gentleman.  Perhaps  his  hands 
aided  to  keep  his  face  serene,  for  we  must  all 
have  snnie  safety-valve.  Almost  the  only  exter 
nal  indication  of  annoyance  I  ever  noticed  in 
him  was  a  nervous  opening  and  shutting  of  his 
fingers,  an  index  of  emotion  often  observed  by 
other  of  his  more  intimate  friends.  A  notable 
illustration  of  this  trait  was  told  me  by  a  gen- 
tleman who  once  accompanied  him  to  a  large 
public  dinner  given  in  his  honor.  At  its  close 
one  of  the  guests  ventured  upon  the  telling  of 
stories  wdiich  are  not  told  pueris  virginibusque. 
The  General's  ringers  began  to  work ;  he  quietly 
excused  himself ;  and  his  companion,  who  knew 
the  significance  of  the  gesture,  followed  him. 
As  they  smoked  their  cigars  on  the  streets  of 
the  foreign  city  in  which  this  occurred,  the  Gen- 
eral said :  '  I  hope  I  have  not  taken  you  from  the 
table,  but  I  have  never  permitted  such  conversa- 
tion in  my  presence,  and  I  never  intend  to.' 
This  was  not  an  affectation.  I  lis  mind,  clear 
and   wholesome,  left    its    imprint    in    his    face. 


226  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

Grossness  or  scandal  gave  him  genuine  discom- 
fort. He  loved  to  think  well  of  his  kind.  This 
trait  showed  in  his  face,  gave  it  benignity,  and 
was,  I  fancy,  the  secret  of  his  hold  on  the  affec- 
tions of  men.  "We  chanced  to  be  alone  in  his 
room  one  night  after  the  last  cruel  betrayal  of 
his  confidence,  he  walking  to  and  fro  by  the  aid 
of  his  crutch.  Suddenly  he  stopped,  and,  as  if 
following  aloud  the  train  of  his  silent  thought, 
he  said  :  '  I  have  made  it  a  rule  of  my  life  to  be- 
lieve in  a  man  long  after  others  have  given 
him  up.  I  do  not  see  how  I  can  do  so  again.' 
There  was  no  bitterness  in  his  voice,  not  even  an 
elevation  of  tone.  It  was  simply  an  exclamation 
of  an  honest  heart  sorely  wounded  in  its  belief. 

"  As  I  recall  his  face,  that  which  I  remember 
is  not  so  much  line  and  contour  as  the  expres- 
sion of  strength,  of  great  patience,  of  calmness, 
and  of  gentleness ;  and  the  incidents  which  illus- 
trate pure  qualities  also  come  back  freshly  to  my 
memory. 

"  He  had,  too,  a  merry  face  ;  at  times  a  merry 
eye.  He  was  full  of  sly  humor.  The  twinkling 
of  his  eye  and  his  quiet  laugh  promptly  re- 
warded an  amusing  story.  In  his  own  home  his 
face  was  always  kind  and  responsive.  There  he 
was  not  the  silent  man  the  world  thought   it 


U.  S.    GUAM 


QUANT 

knew,  but  a  fluent  and  well  informed  talker  on 
all  that  was  of  interest  to  him.  Undoubtedly, 
however,  he  had  the  gift  of  silence,  and  when  he 
saw  lit  tn  exercise  it  his  face  became  a  mask, 
conversation  ceased  to  he  among  the  possibilities, 
and  a  chat  with  a  graven  image  would  have 
been  a  relief  at  such  a  time,  lie  became  then. 
and  designedly,  a  silence-compeller.  When  there 
was  nothing  to  he  said,  he  said  nothing." 

(4eueral  Grant,  on  the  occasion  of  the  surren- 
der of  General  Lee  at  Appomattox  Court  House, 
was  thus  described  by  General  Horace  Porter, 
his  aide-tie-camp:  "lie  was  then  nearly  forty- 
three  years  of  age,  live  feet  eight  inches  in 
height,  with  shoulders  slightly  stooped.  His  hair 
and  full  beard  were  a  nut-brown,  without  a  trace 
of  gray.  He  had  on  a  single- breasted  blouse, 
made  of  dark-blue  flannel,  unbuttoned  in  front, 
and  showing  a  waistcoat  underneath.  lie  wore 
an  ordinary  pair  of  top-boots,  with  his  trousers 
inside  and  without  spurs.  The  hoots  and  por- 
tions of  his  clothes  were  spattered  with  mud. 
He  had  had  on  a  pair  of  thread  gloves  of  a  dark 
yellow  color,  which  he  had  taken  off  on  entering 
the  room.  His  felt 'sugar-loaf,' stiff- brimmed 
hat  was  thrown  on  the  table  beside  him.  He 
had  no  sword,  and   a    pair   of   shoulder  straps 


230  PORTHAITS  IN  PLASTER 

was  all  there  was  about  him  to  designate  his 
rank.  In  fact,  aside  from  these,  his  uniform  was 
that  of  a  private  soldier." 

This  was  thoroughly  characteristic  of  the  sim- 
plicity and  modesty  of  the  man.  He  came,  in 
the  face  of  the  whole  admiring  world,  to  make 
his  lasting  mark  upon  one  of  the  most  important 
pages  of  his  country's  history,  the  General  of  his 
country's  armies,  perhaps  the  greatest  soldier  of 
his  time,  without  a  spur  and  without  a  sword, 
in  the  well-worn  uniform  of  a  private  of  Volun- 
teers. 

He  died  as  bravely  and  as  quietly  as  he  had 
lived,  like  one  who  had  even  studied  in  his  death 
to  throw  away  the  dearest  thing  he  owned,  as 
'twere  a  careless  trifle.  He  sleeps  now  on  the 
banks  of  the  Hudson,  in  that  enduring,  honora- 
ble peace  for  which  he  had  fought  so  long,  and 
which  he  had  won  so  gloriously.  His  body  was 
greatly  wasted  by  lingering  disease,  but  those 
who  saw  him  immediately  after  death  say  that 
his  face  looked  ten  years  younger  than  it  had 
looked  during  the  previous  trying  months. 

The  cast  of  Grant  here  presented  is  still  in  the 
possession  of  his  family  in  New  York;  and  it  is 
the  only  copy  ever  made  with  their  consent,  and 
to  their  knowledge. 


WILLIAM    T.  SHERMAN 


SSJEJSMAN  283 

Of  Genera]  Sherman,  General  Porter  said: 
"He  was  a  many-sided  man.  who  had  run  the 
entire  gamut  of  human  experience.  He  had 
been  merchant,  banker,  lawyer,  professor,  trav- 
eller, author,  doctor,  president  of  a  street  rail- 
way, and  soldier.  Wherever  he  was  placed,  his 
individuality  was  conspicuous  and  pronounced. 
His  methods  were  always  original,  and  even 
when  unsuccessful  they  were  entertaining.  He 
could  not  have  been  commonplace  if  he  had 
tried."  There  was  certainly  nothing  common- 
place in  his  personal  appearance.  His  frame 
was  tall  and  wiry ;  his  hazel  eyes  were  sharp 
and  penetrating;  his  nose  was  aquiline;  his 
beard  was  short  and  crisp;  his  mouth  was  firm 
and  tender;  his  bearing  was  courtly,  unpreten- 
tious, and  dignified,  lie  was  the  typical  soldier 
in  appearance  and  action;  like  Grant,  he  was 
entirely  devoid  of  any  outward  expression  of 
vanity,  self-esteem,  or  self-consciousness.  As  he 
was  one  of  the  bravest,  so  was  he  one  of  the 
gentlest,  kindest,  most  sympathetic  of  men.  The 
mask  of  General  Sherman  was  made  immediate- 
ly after  his  death,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  St. 
Gaudens. 

Washington  was  as  blessed  in  his  death  as  in 
his  life.     He  rests  still  upon  the  banks  of  the 


334  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

Potomac,  among  the  people  whom  he  so  dearly 
loved  and  among  whom  he  died ;  and  no  later 
administration  has  ever  cared  to  cut  off  his  head 
for  exhibition  on  the  roof  of  the  Patent  Office 
or  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 

At  least  two  plaster  casts  were  taken  from 
the  living  face  of  Washington.  The  first,  by 
Joseph  Wright,  in  1783,  was  broken  by  the 
nervous  artist  before  it  was  dry ;  and  the  sub- 
ject absolutely,  and,  it  is  whispered,  profanely, 
refused  to  submit  to  the  unpleasant  operation 
again.  The  second  was  made  by  Houdon,  the 
celebrated  French  sculptor,  in  17S5,  and  from  it 
was  modelled  the  familiar  bust  which  bears 
Houdon's  name. 

The  original  Houdon  mask  of  Washington  is 
now  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  W.  W.  Story,  in  his 
studio  in  Rome.  He  traces  it  directly  from 
Houdon's  hands,  and  naturally  he  prizes  it  very 
highly.  It  has  been  preserved  with  great  care, 
and  of  it  he  says  "  there  is  no  question  that  it 
was  made  from  the  living  face  of  Washington, 
and  that  therefore  it  is  the  most  absolutely  au- 
thentic representation  of  the  actual  forms  and 
features  of  his  face  that  exists.  In  all  respects, 
any  portrait  which  materially  differs  from  it 
must  be  wrong."     Mr.  Story  cannot  account  for 


GEORUE    WASHINGTON 


WASEIMGTOA    JEFFERSON  237 

the  fact  that  the  sculptor  opened  the  eyes  of 
Washington  in  the  mask,excep1  upon  the  suppo- 
sition that  lie  did  not  remain  long  enough  al 
Mount  Vernon  to  have  studied  and  modelled  the 
e3Tes  for  his  bust  from  the  face  of  Washington 
himself. 

It  is  but  just  to  add  here  that  Mr.  Story  says 
that  never,  to  his  knowledge  or  belief,  has  a  cast 
been  made  from  the  original  which  he  owns.  He 
examined  the  so-called  cast  in  the  Corcoran  Gal- 
lery at  Washington,  and  he  was  fully  satisfied 
that,  like  all  the  other  specimens  in  existence,  it 
is  of  no  value  in  itself,  and  was  made  from  a 
worn-out  copy  of  the  bust.  The  Washington 
mask  here  presented  is  from  a  photograph 
taken  by  Mr.  Story  in  Home,  and  from  his  own 
copy. 

The  attempt  of  the  sculptor  Browere  to  take  a 
life-mask  of  Thomas  Jefferson  was  not  more  suc- 
cessful, and  was  much  more  disastrous,  than 
Wright's  attempt  upon  the  face  of  Washington. 
Mr.  Ben  Perley  Poore  quotes  Clark  Mills  as  tell- 
ing the  following  story  :  "  The  family  of  the  ex- 
President  were  opposed  to  it,  but  he  finally  con- 
sented, saying  that  he  could  not  find  it  in  his 
heart  to  refuse  a  man  so  trifling  a  favor  who 
had  come  so  far.     He  was  placed  on  his  back  on 


238  PORTRAITS  IS  PLASTER 

a  sofa,  one  of  his  hands  grasping  a  chair  which 
stood  in  front.  Not  dreaming  of  any  danger, 
his  family  could  not  bear  to  see  him  with  the 
plaster  over  his  face,  and  therefore  were  not 
present ;  and  his  faithful  Burwell  was  the  only 
person  besides  the  artist  in  the  room.  There 
was  some  defect  in  the  arrangements  made  to 
permit  his  breathing,  and  Mr.  Jefferson  came 
near  suffocating.  He  was  too  weak  to  rise  or 
to  relieve  himself,  and  his  feeble  struggles  were 
unnoticed  or  unheeded  by  his  Parrhasius. 

"  The  sufferer  finally  bethought  himself  of  the 
chair  on  which  his  hand  rested.  He  raised  it  as 
far  as  he  was  able,  and  struck  it  on  the  floor. 
Burwell  became  conscious  of  his  situation,  and 
sprang  furiously  forward.  The  artist  shattered 
his  cast  in  an  instant.  The  family  now  reached 
the  room,  and  Browere  looked  as  if  he  thought 
their  arrival  most  opportune,  for  though  Burwell 
was  supporting  his  master  in  his  arms,  the  fierce 
glare  of  the  African  eve  boded  danger.  Browere 
was  permitted  to  pick  up  his  fragments  of  plas- 
ter and  carry  them  off.  but  whether  he  ever  put 
them  together  to  represent  features  emaciated 
with  age  and  debility,  and  writhing  in  suffoca- 
tion, Mills  did  not  know." 

The   mask   of  Jefferson  in   the   fragmentary 


BENJAMIN"    FRANKLIN 


FRANKLIN  241 

condition  described  above  would  be  of  little  value 
even  if  it  had  been  preserved. 

When  Iloudon  came  to  America  in  L785  to 
make  the  bust  of  Washington,  he  was  the  com 
panion  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  and  he  was,  in  all 
probability,  the  author  of  this  cast  of  Franklin's 
face,  taken  in  Paris  that  year  as  a  model  for  the 
well-known  Ilondon  bust  of  Franklin,  which  it 
somewhat  resembles.  The  original  mask  was 
sold  in  Paris  for  ten  francs  after  the  death  of  the 
artist  in  1828. 

The  familiars  of  Franklin  have  shown  that  his 
face  in  his  old  age  changed  in  a  very  marked  de- 
gree. He  was  in  his  seventy  -  eighth  or  his  sev- 
enty-ninth year  when  he  sat  for  Houdon  in 
17S-4-85.  Many  of  the  features  of  the  Franklin 
cast  as  here  reproduced — the  long  square  chin, 
the  sinking  just  beneath  the  under  lip,  the  shape 
of  the  nose,  and  the  formation  of  the  cheek- 
bones— are  strongly  preserved  in  the  face  of  one 
of  his  great-granddaughters  now  living  in  Phila- 
delphia. 

Leigh  Hunt  in  his  Autobiography  said  that 
Franklin  and  Thomas  Paine  were  frequently 
guests  at  the  house  of  his  maternal  grandfather 
in  Philadelphia  when  his  mother  was  a  girl.  She 
remembered  them  both  distinctly;   and   in  her 


243  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

old  age  she  told  her  son  that  while  she  had  great 
affection  and  admiration  for  Franklin,  Paine 
"had  a  countenance  that  inspired  her  with  ter- 
ror." Hunt  was  inclined  to  attribute  this  in  a 
great  measure  to  Paine's  political  and  religious 
views,  both  of  them  naturally  obnoxious  and 
shocking  to  the  daughter  of  a  Pennsylvania 
Tory  and  rigid  churchman.  Concerning  the 
physical  as  well  as  the  moral  traits  of  the  author 
of  the  Age  of  Reason,  there  seems  to  have  been 
great  diversity  of  opinion.  To  paraphrase  the 
speech  of  Griffith  in  Henry  VIII.  concerning 
Wolsey,  He  was  uncleanly  and  sour  to  them  that 
loved  him  not,  but  to  those  men  that  sought 
him,  sweet  and  fragrant  as  summer.  His  friend 
and  biographer,  Clio  Hickman,  who  considered 
him  "  a  very  superior  character  to  Washington," 
gave  strong  testimony  to  his  personal  attractions 
and  tidiness  of  dress ;  while  James  Cheethara, 
Ids  biographer  and  not  his  friend,  told  a  very 
different  and  not  a  very  pleasant  story,  in  which 
soap  and  water — or  their  absence — play  an  im- 
portant part.  The  former,  according  to  Cheet- 
ham,  was  never  employed  externally  by  Paine, 
and  the  latter  was  very  rarely,  if  ever,  internally 
applied. 

None  of  his  earlier  biographers  give  any  hint 


THOMAS   PAINE 


PAINE  345 

as  to  the  taking  of  this  death-mask,  nor  is  it  to 
be  found  in  any  contemporary  printed  account 
of  the  death-bod  scene,  although  Mr.  Moncure  I>. 
Conway,  in  his  Lift-  of  J'onir,  published  in  1892, 
accepts  it  as  genuine,  and  ascribes  it  to  Jarvis. 
All  the  experts  agree  that  it  is  the  face  of  Paine, 
and  see  in  it  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  face  in 
the  Komney  portrait,  painted  in  1792,  seventeen 
years  before  Paine  died.  It  was  undoubtedly 
made  after  death,  by  John  "Wesley  Jarvis,  the 
painter,  who  was  at  one  time  an  intimate  of 
Paine.  He  studied  modelling  in  clay,  and  made 
the  bust  of  Paine  which  is  now  in  the  possession 
of  the  Historical  Society  of  New  York.  Con- 
cerning this  bust  Dr.  Francis,  in  his  Old  New 
York,  wrote  :  "  The  plaster  cast  of  the  head  and 
features  of  Paine,  now  preserved  in  the  Gallery  of 
Arts  of  the  Historical  Society,  is  remarkable  for 
its  fidelity  to  the  original  at  the  close  of  his  life. 
Jarvis,  the  painter,  then  felt  it  his  most  success- 
ful work  in  that  line  of  occupation,  and  I  can 
confirm  the  opinion  from  my  many  opportuni- 
ties of  seeing  Paine."  He  added  that  Jarvis 
said,  "  I  shall  secure  him  to  a  nicety  if  I  am  so 
fortunate  as  to  get  plaster  enough  for  his  car- 
buncled  nose,"  which  was  not  a  very  pretty 
speech  to  have  made  under  any  circumstances, 


246  PORTRAITS  IX  PLASTER 

particularly  if  the  bust  was  executed  after  the 
subject's  death. 

The  death  -  mask  of  Aaron  Burr  was  made 
by  an  agent  of  Messrs.  Fowler  ct  Wells,  who 
still  possess  the  original  cast.  The  features  are 
shortened  in  a  marked  degree  by  the  absence 
of  the  teeth.  Mr.  Fowler  said  that  "  in  Burr  de- 
structiveness,  combativeness,  firmness,  and  self- 
esteem  were  large,  and  amativeness  excessive." 
It  is  a  curious  fact,  now  generally  forgotten, 
that  Burr  and  Hamilton  resembled  each  other 
in  face  and  figure  in  a  very  marked  degree,  al- 
though Burr  was  a  trifle  the  taller. 

A  bust  of  Burr  by  Turnerelli,  an  Italian  sculp- 
tor residing  in  London  during  the  first  decade  of 
the  century,  was  exhibited  at  the  Royal  Acade- 
my in  180'J  ;  and  Burr,  in  his  Dairy  wad  Letters, 
spoke  more  than  once  of  the  cast  of  his  face 
made  by  the  sculptor  at  that  time.  He  explained 
to  Theodosia  that  he  "submitted  to  the  very  un- 
pleasant ceremony  because  Turnerelli  said  it  was 
necessary,"  and  because  Bentham  and  others  had 
undergone  a  similar  penance ;  and  in  his  Diary 
he  wrote  :  "  Casting  my  eyes  in  the  mirror,  I  ob- 
served a  great  purple  mark  on  my  nose ;  went 
up  and  washed  and  rubbed  it,  all  to  no  purpose. 
It  was  indelible.    That  cursed  mask  business  has 


AARON'    BURR 


BURR-  UNi  OLS  -''■' 

occasioned  it.  1  believe  the  fellow  used  quick- 
Lime  instead  Of  plaster  of  Paris,  for  I  felt  a  very 
unpleasant  degree  of  beat  during  the  operation. 
...  I  have  been  applying  a  dozen  different  ap- 
plications to  the  nose,  which  bave  only  inflamed 
it.  How  many  curses  bave  I  beaped  upon  that 
Italian!  ...  At  eleven  went  to  Turnerelli  to  sit. 
Relieved  myself  by  abusing  him  for  that  nose 
disaster.  ...  He  will  make  a  most  hideous  fright- 
ful thing  [of  the  bust] ;  but  much  like  the  origi- 
nal." 

This  mask,  if  it  is  still  in  existence  — which  is 
not  probable  —  would  be  an  invaluable  addition 
to  the  portraiture  of  Burr. 

Of  Lincoln,  as  of  Wasbington,  two  life-masks 
were  made— one  in  Chicago  in  the  spring  of  186< '. 
by  Mr.  Leonard  W.  Volk,  and  here  reproduced  ; 
one  in  Wasbington,  by  Clark  Mills,  three  or  four 
years  later.  Mr.  Volk,  in  the  Century  Magasim 
for  December,  1881,  gave  a  pleasant  account  of 
the  taking  of  the  former.  Lincoln  sat  natu- 
rally in  the  chair  during  the  operation,  watching 
in  a  mirror  every  move  made  by  the  sculptor,  as 
the  plaster  was  put  on  without  interference  with 
the  eyesight  or  with  the  breathing  of  the  sub- 
ject. When,  at  the  end  of  an  hour,  the  mould 
was  ready  for  removal  — it  was   in  one  piece, 


350  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTEM 

and  contained  both  ears  —  Lincoln  himself  bent 
his  head  forward  and  worked  it  off  gradually 
and  gently,  without  injury  of  any  kind,  not- 
Avithstanding  the  fact  that  it  clung  to  the  high 
cheek-bones,  and  that  a  few  hairs  on  his  eye- 
brows and  temples  were  pulled  out  by  the  roots 
with  the  plaster. 

This  is,  without  question,  the  most  perfect  rep- 
resentation of  Lincoln's  face  in  existence.  I 
have  watched  many  an  eye  fill  while  looking  at 
it  for  the  first  time ;  to  many  minds  it  has  been 
a  revelation ;  and  I  turn  to  it  myself  more  quick- 
ly and  more  often  than  to  any  of  the  others, 
when  I  want  comfort  and  help.  What  Whit- 
tier  wrote  to  James  T.  Fields  of  the  Marshall 
engraving  of  Lincoln  may  be  said  of  this  life- 
cast.  "  It  contains  the  informing  spirit  of  the 
man  within.  .  .  .  The  old  harsh  lines  and  un- 
mistakable mouth  are  there  without  flattery  or 
compromise ;  but  over  all,  and  through  all,  the 
pathetic  sadness,  the  wise  simplicity,  and  tender 
humanity  of  the  man  are  visible.  It  is  the  face 
of  the  speaker  at  Gettysburg,  and  the  writer  of 
the  second  Inaugural." 

The  Clark  Mills  mask,  said  Mr.  John  Hay,  in 
a  later  number  of  the  Century  Magazine,  is  "so 
sad  and  peaceful  in  its  infinite  repose  that  the 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 


LINCOLN— WEBSTER-CLA  Y  ■-'■">:; 

ruinous  sculptor.  Mr.  St.  Gaudens,  insisted  when 
he  arstsaw  it  thai  it  was  a  death-mask.  The 
Lines  are  set.  as  if  the  Living  face,  like  the  copy, 
had  been  in  bronze;  the  nose  is  thin,  and  length- 
ened by  the  emaciation  of  the  cheeks;  the 
mouth  is  fixed  like  that  of  an  archaic  statue:  a 
look  as  of  one  on  whom  sorrow  and  care  had 
done  their  worst,  without  hope  of  victory,  is  on 
all  the  features ;  the  whole  expression  is  of  un- 
speakable sadness  and  all-sufficing  strength.  Yet 
the  peace  is  not  the  dreadful  peace  of  death ;  it 
is  the  peace  that  passeth  understanding." 

Speaking  of  Webster,  Mr.  O.  F.  Fowler,  in  his 
Practical  Phrenology,  said:  "A  larger  mass  of 
brain,  perhaps,  never  was  found,  and  never  will 
be  found,  in  the  upper  and  lateral  portions  of 
any  man's  forehead.      Both  in   height   and  in 
breadth  his  forehead  is  prodigiously  great."   The 
head  of  Clay,  according  to  the  same  authority, 
was  also  "unusually  large.     It  measured  seven 
and  three-eighths  inches  in  diameter,  and  it  was 
very  high  in  proportion  to  its  breadth ;  the  rea- 
soning °organs  were  large,  and    the   perceptive 
and  semi-perceptive  organs  still  larger."     M  r.  G. 
P.  A.  Healy,  the   painter,  said  that  Mr.  Clay's 
mouth    was   very   peculiar;   that    it    was    thin- 
lipped,  and  extended  from  ear  to  ear.     This  last 


254  PORTRAITS  IX  PLASTER 

is  not  particularly  noticeable  in  the  familiar  por- 
traits of  Clay,  not  even  in  that  painted  by  Mr. 
Healy  himself.  Both  Mr.  St.  Gaudens  and  Mr. 
Hartley  incline  to  the  opinion  that  the  mask  of 
Clay  in  my  collection  is  a  cast  from  the  actual 
face,  and,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  eye- 
lids ai'e  open,  that  it  is  from  life.  Lewis  Gaylord 
Clark,  writing  in  1S52  in  Harper's  Magazine  of 
Clay's  funeral,  said :  "  His  countenance  immedi- 
ately after  death  looked  like  an  antique  cast. 
His  features  seemed  to  be  perfectly  classical,  and 
the  repose  of  all  his  muscles  gave  the  lifeless 
body  a  quiet  majesty  seldom  reached  by  living 
human  beings." 

Comparing  Calhoun  with  Webster,  Mi'.  Fowler 
attributed  t<>  <  lalhoun  the  greater  power  of  anal- 
ysis and  illustration:  to  Webster,  the  greater 
depth  and  profundity.  In  Calhoun  he  found, 
united  to  a  very  large  head,  an  active  tempera- 
ment and  sharp  organs,  the  greatest  peculiarity 
of  his  phrenology  consisting  in  the  fact  that  all 
the  intellectual  faculties  were  very  large.  The 
casts  of  Webster  and  Calhoun  were  made  in 
Washington  by  Clark  Mills  from  the  living  faces 
—Calhoun's  in  1844,  Webster's  in  1849;  and 
they  are,  consequently,  of  no  little  interest  and 
value. 


DANIEL    WEBSTER 


HENRY    CI,AY 


JOHN    C.   CALHOUN 


BJttOUGHAM  861 

Sydney  Smith,  who  once  culled  I  taniel  Webster 
"a  steam-engine  in  trousers,"  thus  disposed  of  a 
contemporary  British  statesman:  "  Lord  Brough- 
am's great  passions,"  he  said,  "are  vanity  and 
ambition.  lie  considers  himself  as  one  of  the 
most  wonderful  works  of  Providence,  is  inces- 
santly striving  to  display  that  superiority  to  his 
IVllow-creatures,  and  to  grasp  a  supreme  domin- 
ion over  all  men  and  all  things.  His  vanity  is 
so  preposterous  that  it  has  exposed  him  to  ludi- 
crous failures,  and  little  that  he  has  written  will 
survive  him.  His  ambition,  and  the  falsehood 
and  intrigue  with  which  it,  works,  have  estranged 
all  parties  from  him,  and  left  him,  in  the  midst 
of  bodily  and  intellectual  strength,  an  isolated 
individual,  whom  nobody  will  trust,  and  with 
whom  nobody  will  act."' 

The  head  of  Brougham  was  of  full  size,  but 
not  unusual.  A  student  of  physiognomy,  but  not 
a  student  of  the  back  numbers  of  the  London 
Punch,  wrho  did  not  recognize  the  man  in  this 
cast,  said  of  it  that  it  was  the  head  of  a  man 
more  remarkable  for  vivacity  and  quickness  of 
mind  than  for  original  and  powerful  thinking. 
George  Combe,  in  the  winter  of  1S3S-39.  exhib- 
ited in  the  United  States  a  mask  of  Brougham, 
of  course  from  life,  for  Brougham  did  not  die 


362  PORTRAITS  IN  PLASTER 

until  thirty  years  after  that — and  he  was  born 
in  1778 — which  is  perhaps  the  mask  here  repro- 
duced, as  it  is  the  face  of  a  man  in  his  prime,  and 
his  was  a  marvellous  prime — not  that  of  a  nono- 
genarian.  Brougham's  powers  of  activity  and 
endurance  were  phenomenal.  It  is  recorded  of 
him  that  he  went  from  the  Law  Courts  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  from  the  House  to  his 
own  chambers,  where  he  wrote  an  article  for 
the  Edinburgh  1!<  view,  then,  without  rest,  to  the 
Courts  and  the  House  again,  sitting  until  the 
morning  of  the  third  day  before  he  thought  of 
his  bed  or  his  sleep;  and  that  during  all  this 
time  he  showed  no  signs  of  mental  or  physical 
fatigue.  Such  continuous  activity  certainly  did 
not  shorten  his  days,  even  if  it  lengthened  his 
nights. 

Probably  no  single  facial  organ  in  the  world 
has  been  the  subject  of  so  much  attention  from 
the  caricaturists  as  the  nose  of  Lord  Brougham. 
It  is  doubtful  if  any  two  consecutive  numbers  of 
any  so-called  comic  or  satirical  journal  appeared 
in  England  during  Brougham's  time  without 
some  representation  of  Brougham's  nose.  The 
author  of  Isotm  mi  Xos,s  thus  spoke  of  it:  "It 
is  a  most  eccentric  nose ;  it  comes  within  no  pos- 
sible category  ;  it  is  like  no  other  man's  ;  it  has 


LORD    BKOTGHAM 


BJROUGffAM  365 

good  points  and  bad  points  and  no  point  at  all. 
When  you  think  it  is  going  right  on  for  a  Ro- 
man, it  suddenly  becomes  a  Greek;  when  you 
have  written  it  down  cogitative,  it  becomes  as 
sharp  as  a  knife.  .  .  .  It  is  a  regular  Proteus; 
when  you  have  caught  it  in  one  shape  it  instant- 
ly becomes  another.  Turn  it  and  twist  it  and 
view  it  how,  when,  and  where  you  will,  it  is 
mver  to  be  seen  twice  in  the  same  shape;  and 
all  you  can  say  of  it  is  that  it's  a  queer  one. 
And  such  exactly,"  he  added,  "is  my  Lord 
Brougham.  .  .  .  Verily  my  Lord  Brougham  and 
my  Lord  Brougham's  nose  have  not  their  like- 
ness in  heaven  or  earth.  .  .  .  And  the  button  at 
the  end  is  the  cause  of  it  all." 

An  interesting  tribute  to  this  remarkable  or- 
e/an is  to  be  found  in  the  printed  Correspondence 
of  John.  Lothrop  Motley.  Concerning  Commem- 
oration Day  at  Oxford  he  wrote,  in  1860,  "  Noth- 
ing could  be  more  absurd  than  Lord  Brougham's 
figure,  long  and  gaunt,  with  sno\\r-white  hair  un- 
der the  great  black  porringer,  and  his  wonderful 
nose  wagging  lithely  from  side  to  side  as  he 
hitched  up  his  red  petticoats  [Commemoration 
robes]  and  stalked  through  the  mud." 

There  is  no  button  on  the  end  of  the  nose  of 
the  specimen  of  humanity  whose  mask  forms  a 


266  PORTRAITS  IX  PLASTER 

tail-piece  to  this  volume.  Cowper,  Combe,  and 
others  believed  that  the  brain  of  the  native  Afri- 
can is  inferior  in  its  intellectual  powers  to  the 
brain  of  the  man  of  European  birth  and  descent, 
while  a  certain  body  of  naturalists  contend  that 
the  negro  owes  his  present  inferiority  entirely 
to  bad  treatment  and  to  unfavorable  circum- 
stances. The  black  boy.  the  cast  of  whose  face 
was  made  for  this  collection  at  St.  Augustine, 
Florida,  by  Mr.  Thomas  Hastings,  the  architect, 
a  year  or  two  ago,  has  undoubtedly  been  for 
generations  the  victim  of  unfavorable  circum- 
stances, and  perhaps  of  bad  treatment  as  well. 
He  is,  at  all  events,  one  of  the  lowest  examples 
of  his  race,  and  his  life-mask  is  only  interesting 
here  as  an  object  of  comparison.  Whatever  the 
head  of  a  Bonaparte,  a  "Washington,  a  Webster, 
or  a  Brougham  is,  his  head  is  not.  But  whether 
his  Creator  or  the  Caucasian  is  responsible  for 
this,  the  naturalists  and  experts  must  decide. 


FLOMDA    NEGRO    BOY 


INDEX 


i.G  S.SSIZ,  Louis,  119. 
Aldrich,     Thomas     Bailey. 

quoted,  37. 
Atterbury,    Bishop   Francis. 

quoted,  81. 

Bahhett,  Lawrence,  28,  33, 

34-37. 
Barrett,    Lawrence,    quoted, 

41. 
"Barry   Cornwall,"    quoted, 

27. 
Beaconsfield,     Earl     of, 

177-183. 
Beethoven,    Ludwig    von, 

61-68. 
Bentiiam,  Jeremy.  117-122. 
Blacklock,  Archibald,    quot- 
ed, 191. 
Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  x., 

4,  197-201. 
Booth,  Edwin,  x.,  28,  38,  II. 

42, 
Bou<  ioault,  Dion,  28, 31-33. 
Bronte,  Charlotte,  quoted,  86. 
Brougham,  Lord,  261-2(55. 
Brown,  John,  M.D.,  quoted, 

93. 


Browning,     Mrs.     Elizabeth 

Barren,  quoted,  146,  205. 
Bruce,  King  Robert,  193. 
Burke,  Edmund,  168-171. 
Burns,  Robert,  191-192. 
Burr,  Aaron,  xi.,  210-249. 
Burr,  Aaron,  quoted,  117. 

Caine,  Hall,  quoted,  123. 
Calhoun,  John  ('.,  254. 
Canqva,  Antonio,  L38,  L50, 

157,  158. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  quoted,  58, 
99,  100,211,  212,  222. 

Caunt,  Ben,  x..  85,  80. 

Cavour,  Count,  125,  120. 

Chadwick,  John  A.,  quoted, 
34. 

Chalmers,  Thomas,  x.,  92- 
90. 

Chantrey,  Sir  Francis,  quot- 
ed, 13. 

Charles  XII.,  xiii.,  218-221. 

( 'lieetham,  James, quoted, 242. 

Cicognara,  Count,  quoted, 
157. 

Clark.  Lewis  Gaylord,  quot- 
ed, 254. 


268 


INDEX 


Clarke,  Asia  Booth,  quoted, 
38-41. 

Clarke,  Charles  Cowden, 
quoted,  96,  106,  109. 

Clay,  Henry,  x.,  253,  254. 

Coleridge,  Ernest  Hartley, 
quoted,  100. 

Coleridge,  Samuel  Tay- 
lor, xii.,  96-100. 

Coleridge,  Sara,  quoted,  99. 

Collins,  Wilkie,  quoted,  145. 

Combe,  George,  quoted,  121. 

Cottinet,  Edmund,  quoted. 
53-54. 

Croker,  John  Wilson,  quoted, 
171-172. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  x.,  4, 
205-213. 

Cumberland,  Richard,  quot- 
ed, 19. 

Cunningham,  Peter,  quoted, 
145. 

Curran,  John  Piiilrot.  171. 

Curtis,  George  William,  quot- 
ed, 41,  150. 

D\nte,  x.,  5-9. 

d'Arbl.iv.  Madame,  quoted, 
46. 

Davies,  Thomas,  quoted,  46. 

Davis.  Mrs.  Jefferson,  quot- 
ed, 150. 

Dickens,  Charles,  quoted,  91. 

Diodorus  Siculus,  quoted,  3. 

Disraeli,  Benjamin,  177- 
182. 


Edwards,  Henry,  28,  33,  37, 

38. 
Evans,   Mary   Ann,   quoted, 

125. 
Evelyn,  John,  quoted,  209. 

Faucit,  Helen,  quoted.  27-28. 
Fitzgerald,    Percy,    quoted, 

46. 
Fowler,  O.  F.,  quoted,  221, 

222,  246,  253,  254. 
Francis,     John    W.,     M.D., 

quoted,  245. 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  241. 
Eraser,  Sir  William,  quoted, 

177. 
Frederick  the  Great,  xi., 

4,  50.  221,  222. 
Frith,   W.   P.,   quoted,    142, 

181,  182. 

Gallenza,  A.,  quoted,  131. 

Gariuck,  David,  19-23. 

"George  Eliot," quoted,  125. 

George  IV..  quoted,  141. 

Gilder,  R.  \\\,  quoted,  L06. 

Grant,  V.  S  ,  x.,4.  222,225- 
230. 

Greville,  Charles  C.  F.,  quot- 
ed, 100,  103. 

Griffin,  Gerald,  quoted,  164. 

Hale,  Philip,  quoted,  62,  67. 

Hall.  S.  ('.,  quoted,  100. 
Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  quot- 
ed, 146. 


INDEX 


269 


Bay,  John,  quoted,  250,  253. 

II  \yixi\-,  l'.r.vi  wn\  Robert, 
[13  117,  138. 

Haydon,  Benjamin  Robert, 
quoted,  103,  104. 

Hazlitt,  "William,  quoted,  103. 

Healey,  G.  P.  A.,  quoted,  253 

IliMiv  IV..  213-218. 

Howells,  William  I).,  quot- 
ed, 132 

Hunt,  Leigh,  quoted,  46,  49, 
103,  109,  164,  241,  243. 


Leopakdi,  (!l  VCOMO,  X.,  132. 

Leslie,  ( !harles  Robert,  quol 
ed,  84, 

Lincoln,  Am:  mi  mi,  249-253. 

Lockhart,  John  Gibson,  quol  - 
ed,  is:. 

Longfellow,  limn  W  ,  quot- 
ed, 149. 

Lome,   Marquis   of,  quoted, 
173 

Louise  op  Prussia,  xi..  50- 


Irving,  Henry,  quoted,  41. 
Irving,  Peter,  quoted,  49. 

Jefferson.  Thomas,  237,  238. 
Jerrold,  Douglas,  quoted,  91. 
Johnson,  Samuel,  110-113. 

K ban,  Edmund,  23-28. 
Kearsley,    George,    quoted, 

lit),  11:;. 
Keats,  John,  x.,  xv.,  105- 

110. 

Kemble,  Fanny,  quoted,  37. 
Kinglake,     Alexander     W., 

quoted,  202. 
Kirkup,  Seymour,  quoted,  5. 

Lampadius,  W.  A.,  quoted, 

71. 
Lavater,     Johann     Kasper, 

quoted,  xiv. ,  221. 
Lawrence,     Sir    Thomas, 

138-142. 


Macaulay,  Thomas  B.,  quot- 
ed, 114.  117. 

Madden,  R.  R.,  quoted,  141, 
142,  202. 

Malibran,  Maria  P.,  53,  54. 

Manso,  Giovanni  Battista, 
quoted,  10. 

Marat,  Jean  Paul,  71,  73, 
75,  76. 

Martin,  Lady,  quoted,  27.  28. 

McCullough,  John,  28,  33. 

Mendelssohn,  Felix,  68-71. 

Mill,  John  Smart,  quoted, 
117. 

Mills,  Clark,  quoted,  2S7-238. 

MrjRABEAU,  G.  R.,  71,  73,  76. 

Moore,  Thomas.  164-168. 

Motley,  John  Lothrop,  quot- 
ed, 86,  91,  265. 

Napoleon  L,  x..  4.  197-201. 
Napoleon    III.,    xv..    201- 

■jo:, 


270 


INDEX 


Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  x.,  76,     Purrington,  William  A.,  quot- 

81-82.  ed,  222,  225,  226,  229. 

Newton,   Sir  Isaac,   quoted, 


5-6. 

Niebuhr,   Berthold    George, 

quoted,  132. 
Noble,  Mark,  quoted,  213. 

Opie,  John,  quoted,  141. 

O'Reilly.  John  Boyle,  132, 
137,  138. 

Osgood,  Samuel,  D.D.,  quot- 
ed, 146. 


Redding,  Cyrus,  quoted,  209, 
210. 

Reid,    T.    Wemyss,    quoted, 
181. 

Rickman,  Clio,  quoted,  242. 

Robespierre,  Maximilian, 
76.  81. 

Robinson.  Henry  Crabb, quot- 
ed. 27.  132. 

Roche,  James  Jeffrey,  quot- 
ed, 137. 
Paine,  Thomas,  x.,  241,  246.     Rossetti,   Dante    G.,   122- 


Palleske,  E.,  quoted,  58. 


125. 


Palmerston,     Lord.     172,     Rossetti,  William  M..  quoted, 

122. 


Ruskin,   John,   quoted,    157, 

158. 
Russell,  Lord  John,  quoted, 

167,  1G8. 


177. 

Part  on,  James,  quoted,  117. 

Payne,  John  Howard,  quot- 
ed, 49. 

Percy,  Thomas,  D.D.,  quot- 
ed i  113. 

Pettigrew,  Thomas  J.,  quot-     Schiller,   Frederick,  xi., 
ed,  3.  54,  57,  58. 

Phillips,  John,  quoted,  181,     Schliemann,  Heinrich,  quot- 
182.  ed,  2. 

Pius  IX.,  x..  131.  Scott.    Sir    Walter,    187- 

Poore,  Ben  Perley,   quoted,         191. 


237.  238. 
Porter,  Horace,  quoted.  229, 

230,  233. 
Powers.  Hiram,  138,  146. 

Procter,  B.  W.,  quoted.  27, 


Scott.    Sir    Walter,    quoted, 

182,  197.  198. 
Seward,  William  H.,  quoted, 

150. 

SriAKSPERE,  10-19. 


Procter,  Mrs.  B.  W.,  quoted,      Sharp.  William,  quoted,  109, 
109.  110. 


/A7</.'.\  871 

Sheridan,   Richard  l'.i;i\>  Ticknor,  George,  quoted,  49. 

ley,  .\ii..  L58,  163,  164.  Turner,  .1.  M.  \\ '.,  L42-145. 
Sheridan,   Richard  Brinsley, 

quoted,  L9,  168.  Volk,   Leonard  W.,  quoted, 

Sherman,    William   T  ,  4,  237,  238. 

233. 

Sherwood,    Mrs.  M.  E.  W.,  Warville,  Brissot  de,  quoted, 

quoted.  4'.'.  117. 

Siddons,  Sarah,  42,  45-50.  Washington,   xiv.,   4,    233- 

Smith,  Southwood,   quoted,  237,  241,  24!). 

118,  121.  Webster,  Daniel,  253,  254. 

Smith,  Sydney,  quoted,  201.  Weld,  Charles  Richard,  quot- 

Speed,  John  Gilmer,  quoted,  ed,  82,  85. 

105.  Whipple,  E,  P.,  quoted,  149. 

Spence,  O.  M.,  quoted,  125,  Whittier,  John  G.,  quoted, 

126.  250. 

Story,  W.  W.,  quoted,  xiv.,  Wikoff,  Henry,  quoted,  202, 

234,237.  205. 

Sumner,  Charles,  150.  Wilde,  Sir  William,  quoted, 

Swift,  Jonathan,  xiii.,  182-  182.  186. 

186.  Willis,  Nathaniel  P.,  quoted, 

107,  177,  178,  181. 

Tasso,  Torquato,  x.,  9-10.  Winter,  William,  quoted,  34, 

Taylor,  Bayard,  quoted,  68,  37,  38. 

71.  Wordsworth,     William, 

Taylor,    Sir   Henry,  quoted,  100-105. 

104. 

Thackeray,    William    M.,  Young,  Julian  Charles,  quot- 

86,  91,  92,  95.  ed,  95,  96, 


THE   END 


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